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THE LIFE OF JESUS 



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Copyright by the Curtis Publishing Co. 

THE NATIVITY. 
From a painting by W. L. Taylor. 



THE 

LIFE OF JESUS 

FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 



BY 
WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH 

AUTHOR OF "CHILD STUDY AND CHILD TRAINING," " THE BOY PROBLEM," 
AND "THE COMING GENERATION" 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1917 



Copyright, 1912, 1917, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



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SEP 19 1917 
©GU47S562 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. A Boy of the Hills ., 3 

II. Jesus' World 9 

III. Jesus' Schooling 15 

IV. A Country Boy's First Visit to the City . 21 
V. The Village Carpenter 28 

VI. The Man Who Had a New Message . . 34 

VII. Jesus' Choice of a Calling 4c 

VIII. How Jesus Went about His Work ... 48 

LX. His Early Comrades 56 

X. How Jesus Lived in His New Home ... 62 

XL The Men Who Told Us about Jesus . . 71 

XII. The Pharisees Studying Jesus 77 

XIII. What Jesus' Teaching Was Like .... 81 

XIV. Jesus' Message to His Neighbors ... 87 
XV. Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom . . 92 

XVI. A Night and Day of Peril 99 

XVII. Back to His Old Home 105 

XVIII. The Adventures of His Twelve Messengers 109 

V 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XIX. Those Who Were with and against Jesus . 114 

XX. The Martyrdom of a Hero 121 

XXI. Jesus Sharing with the Multitude . . . 126 

XXII. The Break with the Pharisees .... 130 

XXIII. Jesus among a Foreign People .... 133 

XXIV. The Source of Jesus' Courage .... 142 
XXV. Jesus Taking the Harder Road .... 147 

XXVI. A Preliminary Visit to Jerusalem . . , 152 

XXVII. In Perea and Samaria 157 

XXVIII. Going up to Jerusalem 161 

XXIX. Jesus' Arrival at Jerusalem 168 

XXX. Jesus' Attack upon the Corrupt Priests . 173 

XXXI. The Conspiracy against Jesus 178 

XXXII. Jesus' Attitude in the Face of Death . . 186 

XXXIII. Betrayed, Denied, Condemned 194 

XXXIV. The Death of Jesus 202 

XXXV. The Christ Who Abides 209 

XXXVI. The Radiance of the Master 214 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

COLOR PLATES 
The Nativity Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

O Little Town of Bethlehem 12 

"Suffer Little Children to Come Unto Me; for of Such Is the 

Kingdom of Heaven" 158 

The Three Wise Men 218 

HALF-TONE PLATES 

Ancient "Fountain of the Virgin," Where Mary Came for 

Water for Her Household — Nazareth 6 

The Youth of Jesus 16 

Nazareth, and the Plain of Esdraelon, Where the Boy Jesus 

Played 18 

Finding Christ in the Temple 26 

Fishermen by the Sea of Galilee 58 

In the Court of a Village Home, Cana of Galilee 64 

Life on the Shore of Galilee, at Tiberias, Palestine .... 72 

Jesus Preaching in a Ship 82 

Christ Blessing Little Children 106 

Plain of Gennesaret and the Sea, North from Above Magdala to 

Upper Galilee, Palestine no 

The Return of the Prodigal Son 118 

Old Gate to Caesarea Philippi, at the Foot of Mt. Hermon, 

Palestine 144 

vii 



viii ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING PAGE 

Purification of the Temple 176 v 

The Last Supper 190 ' 

Golgotha ' 204 ^ 

Among the Lowly 212 / 



ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT 

PAGE 

Nazareth 3 

Outside Stairs to the Roof 5 

Jesus Helping His Mother 7 

A Roman Hall of Justice 10 

Soldiers of the Praetorian Guard n 

Tiberias, from the Lake 12 

A Jewish School . 17 

Nazareth. The Home of Christ for Nearly Thirty Years . 19 

The Tower of Jezreel 22 

Modern Bethel . 23 

Nebi Samwil 23 

General Plan of Temple and Courts as Rebuilt by Herod. 

Drawn to Scale 25 

A Book of the Law 32 

John the Baptist Preaching 36 

The Jordan River 38 

The River Jordan, Near Jericho 40 

The Mount of Temptation 42 

Entrance to Vault over Jacob's Well 49 

The Vault and the Mouth of the Well 49 



ILLUSTRATIONS ix 

PAGE 

The Woman Anointing Jesus' Feet 55 

Fishermen on the Sea of Galilee 56 

The Shore at Khan Minyeh 57 

St. Peter 60 

Ruins of a Synagogue in Galilee 63 

The Man Let Down Through the Roof 65 

The Call of Matthew 66 

Jairus' Daughter . 67 

Tiberias 69 

Kurn Hattin, or the Horns of Hattin 72 

Mark , 75 

A Group of Pharisees 79 

Jesus by the Sea 80 

Path through the Fields. Illustrating the Wayside Hearer . 81 

The Sower 83 

Preaching the Sermon on the Mount 87 

The Sower 94 

The Four Kinds of Soil in the Parable of the Sower .... 95 

The Leaven 96 

Sea of Galilee and Surroundings 99 

Jesus Asleep in the Storm 100 

The Gerasene Demoniac 101 

The Hill near Gerasa 101 

Touching Jesus' Garment 102 

Jairus' Daughter 103 

Christ in the Synagogue at Nazareth 105 



x ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Disciples Journeying . 109 

Saluting a House no 

Sending Out the Disciples Two by Two in 

Head of Peter 112 

Peter Preaching 113 

Praying to Be Seen by Men 114 

Eastern Hand-Washing . 115 

The Lost Son 118 

John the Baptist in Prison 122 

Jesus and the Disciples Setting Sail 127 

Old Tyre . 133 

Ruined Aqueduct at Tyre . 134 

Old Castle at Sidon 135 

Jesus and the Syrophcenician Woman 136 

Jesus and the Nobleman 136 

View in the Lebanon Mountains 137 

Cedars of Lebanon 138 

On the Road to Caesarea Philippi 138 

Caesarea Philippi and a Part of Mount Hermon 139 

Jesus Talking with His Disciples 140 

Mount Hermon, the Probable Scene of the Transfiguration . . 143 

Head of Elijah 145 

Ruins of a Synagogue in Northern Galilee 148 

Fords of the Jordan 150 

The Golden Gate, Jerusalem 152 

A Street in Jerusalem 153 



ILLUSTRATIONS xi 



PAGE 



The Good Samaritan 158 

Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler 159 

On the Road from Jerusalem to Jericho 161 

The Jordan Valley, Near Jericho 162 

The Traditional House of Zacchaeus 164 

The Road from Jerusalem to Jericho 165 

Bethany 166 

View on the Road from Jerusalem to Bethany 169 

The Mount of Olives from Jerusalem . 170 

Jerusalem, from the Mount of Olives . . . . . . . 171 

The Temple Area in the Time of Christ 174 

The Enemies of Jesus 179 

Greeks Asking to See Jesus 182 

The Pharisees Plotting Together 183 

Judas Bargaining to Betray Jesus 184 

Christ Comforting His Disciples at the Passover Supper . . 188 

The Tomb of David 190 

Bridge over the Brook Kidron, near Absalom's Tomb . . . 191 

View in the Garden of Gethsemane 192 

Old Olive-Tree in Gethsemane 193 

The Kiss of Judas 194 

Annas and Caiaphas 195 

The Sanhedrin 196 

Courtyard in the House of Caiaphas 196 

The Jews Urging Pilate to Condemn Jesus 197 

The Castle Antonia 197 



xii ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

So-called House of Caiaphas, now an Armenian Monastery . . 198 

Herod's Palace and Tower of Hippicus 199 

Jesus Bearing His Cross 205 

The Inscription on the Cross . . . . 205 

The New Calvary and the Northern Wall of Jerusalem . . . 206 

Jeremiah's Grotto, near Jerusalem 207 

The "Garden Tomb" . . 209 

Tomb with Rolling Stone 210 

Entrance to the So-called New Tomb ........ 210 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 

FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 

FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 

CHAPTER I 



A BOY OF THE HILLS 

If you were to take a three weeks' journey across the 
Atlantic, past Gibraltar and through the Mediterranean 
to its eastern or farthest shore, you would touch what 
we call "the Holy Land," Palestine, the land of the Bible. 
You could land on the shore of its northern or narrow 
part at the port of Haifa, the Acre of the Crusaders. 
Should you continue 
your journey on horse- 
back across a great and 
fertile valley you would 
find hidden away on the 
slope of the long range 
of foot-hills to the north, 
a town of about seven 
thousand persons. That 
was the town of Naza- 
reth, where Jesus lived. 
The Bible tells us so lit- 
tle about this village 
that we must depend 
upon scholars of our own 
time who have visited it and who are able to tell us how 
it looked in the time of Jesus. 

1 - In the distance it is seen l clinging like a whitewashed 
wasp's nest to the hillside.' It is reached from the plain 
below by a crooked path, so steep and narrow that every 

3 




(From a photograph.) 

Nazareth. 

View from the so-called carpenter's shop of 
Joseph. This view of the beautiful hills south of 
the city was doubtless very familiar to Jesus. 



4 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

traveller has a bad word for it. The village lies in and 
reaches a little upward from a hollow. Clustering hills 
rise to 1,600 feet behind. There is but little pasturage 
upon them. In the spring season wild flowers grow- 
mignonette, larkspur, anemones and roses — and in the 
cultivated gardens of the village are clumps of olive-trees 
and palms. But at other times there is only barren 
rock." — J. Brough, — The Early Life of Our Lord. 

We shall learn more later about the land in which 
Nazareth was situated. It is enough now to say that the 
whole country which was Jesus' world, was no larger than 
Vermont. This little secluded town had about the same 
relation to the great capital, Jerusalem, at the south, 
as a little Scottish town has to London, or a Vermont 
village to the city of Boston. The country just below 
Nazareth, however, was not barren, as much of Scot- 
land is, but it was so beautiful and fertile that there was 
a common saying then, that "it was easier to rear a 
forest of olive-trees in this region, than one child in 
Judea." The workingmen of Nazareth itself were mostly 
vine-dressers, for the hillside soil was less fertile, being 
stony. Farmers in those days objected to the loneli- 
ness of the country and lived in the villages, walking 
out to their fields. There were a few shepherds, how- 
ever, staying on the upland pastures. There were also 
smaller hamlets around, from which probably the in- 
habitants came in to Nazareth on market-days. Fish 
and fishermen, being twenty miles away, were seldom 
seen. 

The main highway from Damascus to Egypt could be 
dimly seen from the hilltop above Nazareth, but the 
path which led through the village from the north was 
simply the outlet from the plateau villages toward the 
south. Except for a few traders, cattle merchants and 
foreignized Jews, there were few strangers' faces seen in 
Nazareth. 

In order to see the kind of home Jesus had as a boy, 
let us turn to the author whom we have just quoted. 



THE PLACE WHERE HE LIVED 



' 'The houses in Eastern villages are, and were, of the 
simplest construction. That in which Joseph and Mary 
lived would be very small; it was only the well-to-do 
who had large ones, or had them built of brick or stone. 
The dwellings of the poor were mere square huts of clay, 
dried hard in the sun and whitewashed. 

''Stairs on the outside led up to the roof, which was 
flat, and was used almost as much as the ground floor. 
Here lay drying in the 
sun vegetables and fruit 
for winter consumption. 
It was a promenade also, 
where the inhabitants 
enjoyed a fresher air 
than in the stuffy streets, 
or watched the flocks 
and herds pasturing in 
the plain; and in sum- 
mer it was often a sleep- 
ing place. 

"There was only one 
room below — this was 

the whole house of the poor — one room for kitchen, living- 
room, bedroom, tool-house, everything. 

"It had no windows; what light there was, came 
through the open doorway, and in some houses from a 
hole in the centre of the roof, which served as chimney. 

"There was very little furniture. 

"The bedding of the family consisted of a few car- 
pets, rolled up and put in a corner during the day, or, 
in the summer, packed away in a big box, to keep them 
from insects. Some houses had a wooden couch, but 
this was a luxury. 

"There were no chairs; a few mats and cushions 
served the purpose. 

"The father's bench and tools were here also, when he 
was not using them outside; and it was troublesome in 
winter to keep the iron from rusting, for there was not 




Outside Stairs to the Roof. 



6 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

much protection against damp air in an open clay hut 
whose floor was the bare ground. 

"Some earthenware jars and pots held all that was 
wanted for cooking. 

"In cold weather a charcoal fire was kindled in a pan 
of earthenware, narrow at the bottom and spreading to 
eighteen inches in diameter at the top ; but better houses 
had a brazier or stand of brass or copper, two feet high, 
with a chafing-dish in the upper surface to hold the fire. 

"There was not much need for artificial light; it was 
bedtime when it was dark. Still, each house had a 
lamp and a stand to set it on. The lamp was of earth- 
enware, in the shape of a rather deep saucer, with a lip, 
like that of a cream-jug, to hold the wick. It stood some- 
times on a high ledge in the wall, but usually on the floor, 
and therefore its stand had to be a high one, so that it 
might, as Jesus said, 'give light to all that are in the 
house.' An earthen jar held the oil with which to re- 
plenish it when the light grew dim. 

"The measure or 'bushel' stood ready to hand. It 
was useful in all sorts of ways. Things were put into 
it, as into a drawer or bag; it was turned upside down 
and the lamp set upon it : now it made a convenient little 
table, and now it was a plate. 

"There was also a besom with which the housewife 
might sweep the floor, as did the woman in the parable 
who had lost a piece of silver. 

"Lastly, in the doorway, hung the Mesusah, a little 
oblong box containing a roll of parchment on which were 
written in twenty-two lines two passages of the Law. 

' ' We may imagine Jesus sitting with the other members 
of the family on the floor around a stool, on which was 
placed a dish containing the relish, whatever it might 
be — perhaps curds or sour wine or wheat porridge, or 
more rarely a stew of meat — and dipping His thin cake 
or bread into it to eat. 

"Such was the humble home to which the parents of 
Jesus brought Him when still an infant, and in which 




pyright by Underwood & Underwood. 

ANCIENT "FOUNTAIN OF THE VIRGIN," WHERE MARY CAME 
FOR WATER FOR HER HOUSEHOLD— NAZARETH. 



THE PARENTS OF JESUS 



He lived and learned during those thirty years of quiet 
preparation for the great work that He was destined to 
do." 

It is not known whether Jesus ever went to school, 
but we will discuss this in a later chapter. No doubt 
He helped His father at his work as a carpenter, and 
went each morning with His mother to the one well in 
the village, at the foot of the 
hill, which was the common 
meeting-place, to carry a 
water- jar for her up to His 
home. 

Motherhood was the best 
thing in Israel. "God could 
not be everywhere," was one 
of the Hebrew sayings, "and 
so He made mothers." 

The Jews gave women a no- 
bler place than did any other 
people. They recognized their 
mothers as the chief blessing 
of both present and future 
national life. Every account 
that has come down to us of 

the mother of Jesus represents her as one devoted to the 
best religious ideals of her people, and as eager to give her 
son the very best she had. The village rabbi would teach 
Jesus of the past, but a mother lives in the future, and it 
would be she who would inspire her son to hope and to 
attain. A woman has no weapon for victory over wrong 
except her children. Through her son Mary might hope 
to help bring in the longings of her race. 

Fathers among the Jews were held responsible for the 
education and conduct of their children, and were pun- 
ished in their stead if they were guilty of bad conduct 
when they were small. Of Joseph we know nothing 
directly. The adjective "just" or perhaps better, fair, 
which is applied to him in Matthew and in the early 





/—IJ/% ^%n^ 



(Copyright, i8g6, by J. J. Tissot.) 
Jesus Helping His Mother. 



8 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

legends, suggests a quality which a son appreciates more 
than any other in a father. As "The Bible for Learners" 
says, "Since Jesus speaks of a father's love as a reflec- 
tion of the love of God, since He could find no higher nor 
more glorious name Himself than that of father, we may 
safely conclude that Joseph was a faithful, careful and 
affectionate parent — in a word, all that father ought to 
be." The touching little incident about the father 
in bed with his children getting up to help a poor neigh- 
bor as told in Luke 1 1 : 5-9 must have been a recollection 
which Jesus had of His own boyhood and of His own 
generous parent. 

We know also that Jesus had four brothers and at least 
two sisters. There was, then, a family of nine persons, 
with all that means of crowding, economy, sharing of 
labor, of trouble and of happiness. 



CHAPTER II 

JESUS' WORLD 

Would Washington have been the same kind of man 
if he had been born in the circumstances of Lincoln ? 
What would Queen Elizabeth have been if she had lived 
in the time of the Crusades ? Would you yourself not 
have looked at life differently if you were a Greek boy 
of the day of Pericles, or lived as a French girl in the 
Gaul that Caesar was conquering ? 

What was the world in which Jesus was brought up ? 

It was, as you know, a Roman world. Jesus lived 
in the great Augustan age. Indeed, Augustus himself, 
the successor of Julius Caesar, was ruler of the world 
when Jesus was born, and lived until Jesus was seventeen 
years old. Some of you have learned from your school 
histories what the Roman Empire was at that time. 
The city of Rome was becoming a splendid capital, 
which, in a few years, Augustus rebuilt in marble. It 
had many modern institutions and comforts. There 
were public baths and playgrounds, daily bulletins sim- 
ilar to our newspapers, and libraries. Rome received 
tribute from the whole world, and there were many 
rich citizens, but there were also many more who were 
wretchedly poor. The capital alone had 200,000 people 
who were maintained at the public cost. Nearly one- 
half the population were slaves. The fortunate were 
living that life of ruinous dissipation which later made 
Rome the easy prey of the Gauls, and the poor aped or 
catered to the vices of the rich. The first chapter of 
epistle to the Romans shows how the low moral character 
of the age appeared to Paul, a serious-minded and an 

9 



10 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



intelligent observer. In the provinces, especially in 
the cities, but also wherever the Romans settled, the 
same kind of conditions had begun to spread. In Jeru- 
salem, the Holy City, there was already an amphitheatre, 
and there were gladiatorial shows within sight and hear- 
ing of the temple. 

On the other hand, it was, like our own, an age of 
intellectual alertness and energy. Men of force, not only 
in government and war, but also in thought and educa- 




A Roman Hall of Justice. 

tion, were appearing. Upon the pathway of the splendid 
Roman roads and using Greek, the universal language 
of culture, the ideals and hopes and achievements of 
all parts of the world, now neighborly under one strong 
government, were making their ways. Traders and 
travellers would bring something of this new awakening 
and amalgamating, even to obscure Nazareth. Jesus 
was protected from the degrading tendencies of Rome, 
while its influence in setting men on their feet, to learn, 
to think and to do, would stimulate Him, even in the 
discouraged province in which He had His home. 

The known world in the time of Jesus was subject to 
one central power. The government of Rome was 
military in character. The emperors were generally 
successful generals, who were placed in power by the 
prestige of their victories and who were often in turn 



THE GOVERNMENT 



11 



displaced by means of the armies of others. Judea, in 
which was Jerusalem, was ruled by a procurator who 
reported regularly to Rome. Galilee and Perea were 
ruled by one of the family of Herod, to whom was given 
the title of tetrarch, which was only less than that of king. 
He had his own army and raised his own taxes, but he 
was removable by the emperor. 

Some of the Roman representatives were uncontrolled 
tyrants. None of them made much effort to under- 
stand the peculiar people whom 
they governed. All of them 
stamped out the first indication 
of revolt with extreme cruelty. 
The Jews, high-spirited and ever 
mindful of their past and their 
hopes for the future, could never 
be content to be mere subjects 
of Rome. They could not boast, 
it is true, of their own later na- 
tive kings, and it must be con- 
fessed that the Romans governed 
them on the whole better than 
they could have governed them- 
selves, but the race of David and 
Solomon, of Ahab and Hezekiah, 
could not possibly be content un- 
less they could be free. The 
village square of Nazareth, where Jesus was brought up, 
was the centre where many a knot of citizens frequently 
discussed the possibility of independence. Even while he 
was a boy, Judas, the Galilean, of His own province, had 
unfolded the banner of revolt with the cry, "No master 
for Israel but the Lord ! Tribute to Rome or submission 
to the tyrant is treason to Him !" This revolution had 
been at once crushed with much bloodshed, but notice 
that it was a religious movement, and that religion, when 
Jesus was a boy, meant to be a patriot. 

The story of the coming of the shepherds, in the Gos- 




soldiers of the p^etorian 
Guard. 

From a bas-relief. The praetorians 
were the body-guard of the emperor. 



12 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



pel according to Luke, endeavors to tell us how the com- 
mon people were looking for help. . When they saw the 
angelic vision what were the words of the message ? Let 
us read them in the Twentieth Century version. "Lis- 
ten ! I am bringing to you good news of a great joy 
which is in store for the whole nation, for there has been 
born to you in the town of David a Saviour, who is 
Christ and Master!" You see the point of their hope? 
Out of the; native town of their hero-king is to come a 
national deliverer. Luke gives the views of two old 




Tiberias, from the Lake. 

The nearest Roman city to Nazareth, built during Jesus' lifetime, and containing a palace 
and fortress of Herod Antipas. 



people. Simeon was probably an Essene, who had 
lived in Jerusalem through years of disappointment, 
and could speak the longing of their nation. Anna was 
an aged but patriot woman. She thanks God that He 
is about to "redeem Jerusalem." Simeon gives praise 
because one is coming who is "to be the glory of his 
people Israel." In the song of the priest Zacharias, the 
father of John the Baptist, we get the bitterness as well 
as the hopes of a downtrodden people. "He prom- 
ised by the lips of His holy prophets of old, to be our 
salvation from our foes, and from the hands of them that 
hate us. This was the oath that He swore to our an- 
cestor Abraham, to grant unto us that we, being de- 
livered out of the hand of our enemies, should serve him 




Copyright by the Curtis Publishing Co. 

O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM. 
From a painting by W. L. Taylor. 



THE EXPECTATIONS OF JESUS' PARENTS 13 

without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all 
our days." 

The details of this hope as they were held, even by 
people of intelligence, were most fantastic. They ex- 
pected preliminary omens of a darkened sun and moon, 
armies marching through the skies, the reappearance of 
Elijah and the sudden and bloodless approach of the 
Messiah, as a victorious ruler. His whole career would 
be signalized by miracles and wonders. The time was 
ready, but He could not yet appear because of the trans- 
gressions of the people. 

Mary and Joseph, as well as Simeon, Anna and Zacha- 
rias, may be regarded as representative of a class of peo- 
ple, not influential, nor rich, nor learned, but who never- 
theless were the strength of the nation. One of the 
Psalms calls them ''The Quiet of the land." They 
were not political schemers like the Pharisees, nor ardent 
revolutionaries like the Zealots, but they felt the deepest 
convictions as to their country's future. Joseph in his 
dream is represented as being told that the promised 
child is "to save his people from their sins." Mary, 
the carpenter's wife, rejoices, in the song which some one 
has called "the birth-song of Democracy," not only 
that "He is to put down the mighty from their seats," 
but that "He hath exalted them of low degree. The 
hungry he hath filled with good things." Jesus was born 
in a home where such hopes were passionately cherished. 
To-day our parents hope that their children may grow 
to be wise and successful, but the parents of Jesus, like 
all others in their neighborhood, dared to hope that 
their own child might prove to be the nation's saviour. 
To be a mother in Israel was more honorable than any- 
where else in the world, for she might become the parent 
or the ancestor of Israel's deliverer. 

You are to think of Jesus then as a boy who had been 
taught these hopes from His earliest childhood. They 
were discussed not only in His home, but at the village 
well, and even in the synagogue services, which corre- 



14 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

spond to our modern church. He and the other young 
people were not only being trained for possible leader- 
ship, but they were all being educated to follow such 
a leader when He should appear. The future disciples 
of Jesus were being made ready as well as He. 



CHAPTER III 
JESUS' SCHOOLING 

We are not told that Jesus ever went to school. You 
remember some one asking once how it was that He knew 
1 'letters" — this probably referred to rabbinical knowl- 
edge — since He had never had the chance to learn. 
There were at that time schools in many of the villages 
of Israel. These were usually housed in synagogues or 
churches, and the attendant or sexton was often the 
teacher. Boys of six years of age were sent to such 
schools, which were as free as the public schools in our 
own country. 

Before Jesus could have gone to school, however, 
He had His first instruction from His parents at home. 
The first words that He would learn to say were from the 
Shema (pronounced Shem-a'), which was the Jews' 
solemn confession of faith. Its first words were written 
on parchment and enclosed in the shining metal case 
which was fastened to the door-post, which He must 
touch every time He came in and went out; they were 
also placed inside the square leather boxes which were 
worn on the foreheads and wrists of all grown-up men 
who were conscientious Jews. These cardinal doctrines 
were: 

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and 
thou shalt love the Lord with all thine heart, and with all 
thy soul and with all thy might." 

Just as soon as Jesus awoke in the morning, before 
He stirred, He had been trained to oifer a prayer of 
thanksgiving for being alive. Before He took four 
steps He must wash His hands in a special way, as a 

15 



16 THE LIFE OP JESUS 

sign that He was clean in spirit as in body, If the sun 
rose after He was dressed He had to stop wherever He 
was at its first shining, whether outdoors or inside, and 
give thanks. Before and after each meal He must make 
a prayer. The very choice of food was a religious act. 

The learning of these and other sacred quotations at 
home was not a sanctimonious duty, but since He was 
taught them when He was busy with His father at work 
or walking beside His mother with the pitcher on her 
head, they were all associated with His parents' love 
and care, and with the sights and sounds of the wonder- 
ful world about Him. 

In Palestine the father was by Jewish law regarded 
as responsible for his child's education. This duty was 
regarded as more important than his meals. To omit 
it would be to deserve the name of a vulgar and irrelig- 
ious person, and in discharging this duty faithfully he 
was an ambassador of the Most High. As Moses carried 
the law from the mountain top down to the people, 
so it was the duty of every father to bestow knowledge 
upon his child. The parents not only taught Jesus the 
sacred sentences, but they also explained them by the 
fascinating stories of Jewish history. 

The schoolhouse or church was a plain, whitewashed 
building, like a New England meeting-house. The boy 
sat on the floor in a circle with their masters, and studied 
their lessons at the top of their voices. They had only 
one text-book, and that was a part of the Old Testament. 
This was a cylinder of manuscript written on a leather 
roll from right to left, wound around two metal staves 
and kept in a silken case in a box on the platform of the 
meeting-house. This was Jesus' spelling-book, arith- 
metic and geography. It contained the stories of His 
country's heroes, the histories of His nation's wars, and 
the words of its best and greatest men. 

Every lesson was a memory lesson. The teacher 
would drill his pupils day after day until they could 
recite word for word all the olden laws, then the stories, 



s 




Copyright by J. J. Tissot. Courtesy of the Tissot Picture Society. 

THE YOUTH OF JESUS. 



THE EDUCATION OF THE FESTIVALS 17 

finally the prophets and the Psalms, until they knew by 
heart thousands of verses from their nation's book. 

Many of the things which boys learn to-day in school 
were then taught at home. Every boy, no matter 
how wealthy his parents, must learn a trade. In learn- 
ing his trade the boy would get the elements of arith- 
metic. Jesus learned from Joseph how to handle the 
saw and a mason's trowel, and how to bend wood for 




A Jewish School. 

ox-yokes, while His sisters were learning from their 
mother how to sew and keep house. 

Jesus' school-days would not be tiresome, for there 
were no lessons in the middle of the day nor in hot 
weather. About one day in every four was a religious 
holiday, and children did not go to school much after 
they were twelve or fourteen years old. 

A very important part of Jesus' education was the 
national feast-days, what might be called "the Church 
Year" of the Jews. This was true because each feast 
had its meaning. The most important was the Sabbath. 
This weekly festival was anticipated by preparing all the 
food for a day in advance. The Sabbath began on Fri- 
day evening. The sacred day was Saturday. The 
Sabbath lamp was lighted then and burned all through 
the next day. It was a day of complete rest. Part 
of the time was spent by the father and the older chil- 



18 THE LIFE OP JESUS 

dren in the synagogue, and he, when he came home, 
pronounced the benediction upon his younger children 
before he sat down to dinner. The day was filled with 
visiting, feasting and short walks, and the Sabbath was 
over at sundown. 

The Passover in the spring was a patriotic feast which 
corresponded in some ways to our Fourth of July, com- 
memorating the independence of Israel from Egypt. 
Next occurred the Feast of Weeks, or of First Fruits. 
In the autumn came the Feast of Tabernacles, when the 
whole family camped out in tents for a week and cele- 
brated thanksgiving time together. There was also the 
Feast of Dedication, which commemorated the revolt 
of Judas the Maccabee, and the springtime Feast of 
Purim, which commemorated the brave story of Esther. 
All these festivals were lessons in history. 

When Jesus was old enough to go to church He heard 
the Scriptures read and explained by the most competent 
man in the village, and sometimes these explanations 
would be followed by a discussion, somewhat like that of 
a Bible class. This, of course, is the very best way to 
get at the meaning of the Bible. Jesus probably had 
access to a copy of the olden Scriptures, and there is 
some evidence that He knew a few other books, which 
were of a semisacred character. 

Every one who has visited Nazareth has climbed the 
hill at the northwest of the village in order to get its 
famous view. This hilltop overlooks many of the most 
interesting places in the Holy Land. It was indeed a 
series of lessons to Jesus in history, patriotism and relig- 
ious spirit. Off to the north He could see the snowy 
shoulder of Mt. Hermon, the highest peak. At its foot 
was the summer palace of their Roman ruler. To the 
east He could see the chasm of the Jordan, and far be- 
yond it the steep, dark walls of the table-land of Gilead, 
where had lived Jephthah, the great warrior, and where 
Gideon had chased Israel's enemies into the woods and 
whipped the elders at Succoth with briers. Opposite, 




opyright by Underwood & Underwood. 

AZARETH, AND THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON, 
BOY JESUS PLAYED. 



WHERE THE 



NAZARETH AND HISTORY 19 

westward, He saw a range of low hills, and beyond them 
a long purple mountain. This Mt. Carmel was asso- 
ciated with the grand story of Elijah. To the south, 
beyond a long, winding, narrow plain, a great triangle of 
waving grain and grass, were other hills. These were the 
mountains of Gilboa where Gideon had tested the great- 
ness of his volunteers at the water-springs. Yonder was 
Tabor, where Deborah, with a young man perhaps 
hardly more than a boy helping her, had gathered Is- 
rael's minutemen to the defense of their country. In the 




Nazareth. The Home of Christ for Nearly Thirty Years. 

spacious valley below, these soldiers had defeated Sisera, 
and across that plain later drove furious Jehu, who killed 
wretched Jezebel, the enemy of his people. Yonder too 
died the boy king Josiah, in a daring but vain endeavor 
to stem the power of Egypt. The pathway through 
this valley is the oldest road in the world — the bridge 
between Asia and Africa. How much history has flowed 
down that stream of pilgrimage since then ! Beyond 
rounded Tabor stood gray Gilboa again, the scene of 
the death of Saul and Jonathan, and of the coming into 
his kingdom of David, the great shepherd of Israel. What 
boy could live in such scenes and not be a patriot and a 
worshipper of the God who had protected Israel ? 

Finally, there was the education of the village of 
Nazareth itself. All the grown people then took the 



20 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

deepest interest in children. Some of the wiser ones 
spent much of their time answering the questions of the 
younger folks, talking with them and teaching them wise 
sayings. One of the proverbs of the day encouraged the 
young to listen to such men. It ran: "Stay close by the 
seller of perfumes, if you wish to be fragrant yourself." 

As soon as Jesus was old enough to understand, the 
discussions in and after the synagogue and around the 
village spring would give Him the standpoint of the men 
of His race, and occasionally a trader or a traveller would 
come who would bring something new from the outside 
world. Possibly Joseph, on his travels as a carpenter 
and mason, would learn much that would interest his 
children. The language of Jesus and His parents was 
Aramaic, a tongue that had somewhat the relation to 
Hebrew that Italian has to the Latin. In some way, 
no doubt at the expenditure of much pains and energy, 
it is possible that Jesus picked up Greek, the language of 
courts and of culture. He must have learned the Old 
Hebrew, the language of the Scriptures, which had now 
become a dead tongue, if He read the roll in the syna- 
gogue. 

Men are discussing to-day how to provide religious 
education in a country in which the public school may 
not teach religion, but, as you can see, the Jews had, in 
a wonderful way, provided that all the education, both 
public and private, that the boys and girls obtained then 
was religious, that is, it tended toward love of God and 
country, and toward the wish to be righteous and of 
service to one's fellows. 



CHAPTER IV 

A COUNTRY BOY'S FIRST VISIT TO THE CITY 

When Jesus was in His thirteenth year He was taken 
upon His first journey away from home. He had now 
become what was called "a Son of the Law"; that is, 
it was supposed that He was now old enough to be 
responsible for His own actions, and that He was upon the 
verge of manhood. It was now His privilege to take an 
active part in the principal feast^of His country, and it 
became His duty for the rest of His life to attend that 
festival in Jerusalem whenever it was possible. 

One of the events which made this first journey of 
Jesus from home significant, was the fact that before 
He started He put on for the first time the clothing of a 
man. This garment of manhood consisted of a great 
striped cloak of the shape and size of a Scotch plaid, 
upon each corner of which was a long blue tassel. The 
stricter Jews also wore phylacteries. These tassels 
and phylacteries were worn with great pride. They were 
shown especially in the presence of foreigners. A Jew 
wore these patriotic emblems with the same pleasure 
which an American feels in showing the Stars and Stripes 
in a foreign country. 

We can hardly emphasize too much that the first 
journey of Jesus was that of a Jewish boy going to the 
Jewish capital for the greatest event in Jewish life. 
We who sometimes sneer at Hebrews to-day, especially 
the unfortunate and ignorant emigrants who flee to 
America from Russia, need to realize that Jesus was a 
member of one of the grandest races of antiquity. Not 
only had His race produced several of the greatest men 
in history, but the Jewish thinking about God constituted 

21 



22 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 




the greatest religious gift which any race has made to 
the world. "The Jewish race," says a great Scottish 
scholar, "is our Mother of Sorrows, our first teacher of 
penitence and righteousness." 

All the fathers and mothers and the older children of 
Nazareth, dressed in bright colors, started together upon 
a camping tour, which lasted ten days. The chief men 
of the village went first with the village banner, and a cav- 
alcade of donkeys and of 
people followed behind. 
No doubt the boys car- 
ried sticks to encourage 
the donkeys, for all, ex- 
cept the women, trav- 
elled on foot. Nobody 
was left behind except 
the old people and the 
little children. 

The procession wound 
down the Nazareth hills 
to the great valley be- 
low, where, as it entered the old royal road, it joined a 
throng of travellers. Some were their countrymen living 
farther north or in foreign lands, others Greeks, Romans, 
and people from Asia Minor who came for trade or curi- 
osity to the great feast. In some of these groups stately 
camels ambled along, bearing bales of silk and bundles of 
spices and merchandise. It was springtime, and the green 
fields were dotted with wild flowers of many colors. The 
shepherd boys were watching their sheep beside the placid 
Kishon river, and the farmers were standing knee-deep in 
the verdant green. 

The three days' journey passed place after place 
which aroused in Jesus' mind the deepest interest. First 
was Shunem, connected with the story of Elisha; then 
the weird caves of Endor, where the old witch used to 
live; then ruined Jezreel, Jezebel's old summer home. 
The first night they camped in a sheltered spot be- 



The Tower of Jezreel. 



WHAT HE SAW ON THE WAY 



23 




Modern Bethel. 



tween grassy Carmel and barren Gilboa, where the road 
begins to climb the table-land. Big camp-fires were 
built along the plain, and it was hard to sleep in the 
midst of the marching 
songs of other pilgrims 
who were approaching, 
and the chatter of count- 
less voices happy with 
reunion. The full Pas- 
chal moon was shining, 
and the slopes of the en- 
circling hills were almost 
as light as day. The 
second day's journey 
probably took them 
through the highlands. 
A Jew travelling alone avoided Samaria, but not so a 
cavalcade. They passed the well where Joseph was left 
by his envious brothers, and came toward night beneath 
the walls of the city of Samaria. It was a magnificent 
town, but it was not a friendly one, for it was a Roman 

fortress and, too, the 
Jews had no dealings 
with the Samaritans. 
Again they camped in 
sight of two mountains, 
Ebal and Gerizim, on 
whose two slopes Josh- 
ua, Jesus' great name- 
sake (Joshua in Greek 
is Jesus) had gathered 
the whole nation after 
the conquest. The next 
morning they passed the 
grave of Joseph, and 
drank at Jacob's well. During the day they scrambled 
across the rocky slope of Bethel, where Jacob slept the 
first night he was away from Hebron, upon the stones 




Nebi Samwtl. 
Supposed to be Ramah, the home of Samuel. 



24 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

of his grandfather's altar; then Ramah, where Samuel, 
the kingmaker, lived, and Gibeah, where Saul was born. 
Some time the third day they found that their eighty-mile 
journey was nearly over, and knew that the Holy City, 
the goal of their pilgrimage, would soon be in sight. All 
the morning they had been singing the pilgrim songs, 
and now everybody put on his best clothes and his 
adornments, to be ready for entrance into the great 
city. 

There is a little collection embedded in the Book of 
Psalms, from the 120th to the 134th inclusive, which is 
believed to contain some of the songs which were sung 
on the march and upon the approach and entrance to 
the Holy City. These were strongly patriotic in char- 
acter, and were probably as familiar to every Jewish child 
as "America" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic " 
are to us. You will enjoy turning to them again, and 
noticing their subjects. The 121st, which has always 
been loved by travellers and sailors, has been called An 
Evening Hymn in Sight of Jerusalem; the 128th, A Home 
Song of the Hebrew Race; the 134th, The Benediction 
of the Night Watch, in the temple. As the pilgrims 
went along the footpath way, no doubt they sang the 
Marching Song, which we call the 12 2d Psalm. 

Though long awaited, the first sight of the city was 
unexpected. They climbed a hillock, and lo, it was 
already spread before them. On the right was the 
great stone castle of the Romans. The old gray wall, 
a hundred feet above the valley, protected every side, 
and the hills were, as of old, around Jerusalem, but 
there at the left before them was the temple, a mighty 
cathedral, with its snowy terraces of marble, and its 
roofs of gleaming gold. The whole company knelt in 
thanksgiving as the holy house flashed into view. To 
Jesus it was the most glorious sight He had ever seen. 

When they caught sight of the temple they probably 
broke out into the notes of the 125th Psalm. If the 
1 2 2d was sung to a marching melody, paced by drums, 



WHAT JESUS DID IN THE CITY 



25 



this song would be set to a triumphant tune, and perhaps 
accompanied by trumpets. 

All Jerusalem kept open house and every home enter- 
tained a group of friends or strangers. Multitudes were 
camping out upon the hill slopes of the Mount of Olives. 
In the early morning Jesus 
and His parents stood in 
the Jewish court. In the 
larger courtyard outside, 
foreigners gathered curi- 
ously and looked in, and 
read the stone tablet which 
warned them of death if 
they ventured farther. But 
Jesus belonged to the chosen 
people, "The Sons of God, " 
as they called themselves. 
And He listened eagerly and 
intently when the strange 
washings and burnings and 
recitatives went on, watched 
the incense overflow the 
curtains, and noted by the 
sound of the tinkling bells 
behind him, in what part 
of the service the unseen 
priest was engaged. 

On the great day of the 
feast Joseph purchased a 
choice yearling lamb, and 
after a priest had killed it 

Mary roasted it upon a cross of pomegranate wood. In 
the upper room, away from the crowd, Joseph and his wife 
and their boy ate the sacred meal. 

Every part of the feast was a story. These bitter 
herbs were a symbol of the bitterness of slavery, and the 
paste of fruits was the emblem of the mortar which their 
fathers used when they were forced to make bricks in 




General Plan oe Temple and Courts 
as Rebuilt by Herod. Drawn to 
Scale. 

i. Holy of Holies. 2. Holy Place. 3. 
Temple Porch. 4. Great Altar of Burnt 
Offerings. 5. Court of the Priests. 6. 
Court of Israel. 7. Court of the Women. 
8. Beautiful Gate. 9. Priests' Chambers. 
10. "Soreg" or Balustrade, within which 
Gentiles were not allowed to go. 11. Court 
of the Gentiles. 12. Solomon's Porch. 13. 
Royal Porch. 14. Entrance to Castle of 
Antonia. 



26 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

Egypt. The silent lamb reminded them that redemp- 
tion is always at the cost of life. They ate standing up 
and in haste, as if just fleeing from bondage. They 
offered the old thanksgiving prayers and sang the ancient 
songs. At the close Jesus was expected to ask, "What 
do you mean by these services ? " and Joseph told again the 
Passover story. (Exodus 12 : 1-28.) 

You can realize how much the three days meant to 
Jesus. Jerusalem was not only the capital and the 
shrine, but it was also the university of Israel. Here 
gathered not only all sanctity and wealth, but also all 
wisdom. The shallow shops along the narrow lanes 
were filled with goods and treasures from all nations. 
The tongues of twenty races could be heard among the 
gathered thousands. From the walls Jesus could see 
sites that repeated the entire story of this wonderful 
capital. The impregnable Roman fortress next door to 
the temple was a reminder of the decline and changed 
conditions of the nation's life, but, of course, the great 
centre of attraction was the temple itself. The build- 
ing was new and magnificent. Its many courts were 
always filled, the people talking, singing or praying, and 
even offering merchandise for sale. The services were 
accompanied by choruses of child musicians, and were 
brilliant with the bright gowns of the priests and doctors, 
and every afternoon, upon the grassy terrace outside 
the great building itself, a solemn company of scholars 
gathered to conduct public discussions and answer ques- 
tions. In all these places Jesus took delight, but espe- 
cially was He found in the temple at the hours of service, 
and each day He came eagerly to bring His questions, 
which were the old questions that He had heard discussed 
so often in the synagogue and market-place of Nazareth, to 
receive such answers as the wise men of His time could 
give. These things made deep impressions on the 
thoughtful boy, and they furnished food for many a 
subsequent meditation. 

You know how there came a time in your own life 



THE AWAKENING OF JESUS 27 

when it seemed as if you had had an awakening, perhaps 
a sudden one, perhaps a slow one. It was as if you 
had always been blind, and now for the first time could 
see. You seemed to have outgrown all you had known, 
or had been before. You were no longer boy or girl; 
you were henceforth man or woman. No longer could 
other people settle questions for you. You must have 
not only the solemn privilege, but also the awful duty 
of carrying your own life. Was not this what Jesus 
meant in His reply to His anxious mother? Up to this 
time she had been saying to Him, "You must," and He 
had obeyed her; henceforth a voice within spoke, which 
said "I must." So He answered "Do you not know that 
I must be about my Father's work ?" 






CHAPTER V 
THE VILLAGE CARPENTER 

After the Passover which Jesus attended at Jerusalem 
we are told that He went down with His parents to His 
home in Nazareth and submitted to their control. Other 
scripture passages tell us that He became a carpenter, 
and this is all that we know directly about His life for 
the next seventeen or eighteen years, but from the fact 
that soon after the end of that period He removed His 
family to the new home in Capernaum, we get the im- 
pression that Joseph died during Jesus' boyhood or early 
manhood, and that Jesus had been engaged in the sup- 
port of His own home which, as we know, numbered no 
less than eight persons. But so much is now known 
about the artisan life in Palestine in the time of Jesus, 
that we can construct a very interesting picture of His 
young manhood. 

The village of Nazareth was a rambling town centring 
upon a hillside. It had no paving or sewerage, and the 
small white houses stood along winding lanes, all of 
which led down to the square where was the village 
spring, the only water-supply for the town. The people 
were generally poor. They had only small farms, and 
the hillside soil was not good. They had lost heart under 
the exactions of the Roman tax-gatherers, and as they 
were not upon a main thoroughfare nor near a city, they 
had no market for their products. 

As the houses were of clay or stone, there was not 
much work for a carpenter in constructing buildings. 
His neighbors would do all the repair work possible 
themselves. Joseph would perhaps be asked to lay new 
roof rafters, to be coated over with clay, and to make 

28 



JESUS' DAILY LIFE 29 

simple furnishings of chests and benches, but the larger 
part of his work was probably the shaping of ox-yokes 
and the making of wheels for carts. 

Is it not possible that Joseph and Jesus were called 
away at times to work at their craft upon the new palace 
of Herod Philip at Tiberias or even upon the completing 
of the temple at Jerusalem ? 

An artisan in those days and clear through the middle 
ages was a man of an itinerant calling, and had a broader 
experience than almost any other, except a trader or a 
soldier. We get our best explanation of Jesus' immediate 
success at Capernaum later if we suppose that He already 
had an acquaintance there. He may have removed His 
home there long before His public ministry. 

If Jesus was the village carpenter He must have been 
familiar with every home and family in Nazareth. He 
knew people of all ages and was acquainted with their 
circumstances of joy, sorrow and need. He learned 
about farm life as He made ploughs for the farmers, 
and He learned to sympathize with a house-builder, of 
whom He told in His stories, who started a house without 
having money enough to finish it, or who tried to build 
his home upon sandy soil instead of upon a stone founda- 
tion. Perhaps He thought of illustrations He would 
use from sheep and hens as He repaired sheep-folds and 
made hen-coops. When He went away from home He 
got new outlooks on human life and toil. He had the 
habit of walking in the fields on Sabbath afternoons, 
and no doubt loved the solitude of Nazareth's lonely 
hilltop. 

If it be true that Joseph died when Jesus was a boy, 
then Jesus had to take the place of father to His younger 
brothers and sisters. He had, therefore, to spend much 
time in their education, and perhaps part of the skill of 
Jesus as a teacher came from His practice as school- 
teacher to the little group of six other children, of whom 
He was the instructor. 

Jesus had so short a time to show what religion was 



30 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

like, yet of His three and thirty years all but three were 
spent in manual toil. He never had the leisure to go 
into a hermitage as John did. He never took time to 
fast but once. He had little privacy. He had to learn 
life and live out His life in just the same kind of circum- 
stances which cause us to complain or to excuse our- 
selves for not being more unselfish. 

You can understand what the circumstances of a man's 
life have been by little incidents. You remember that 
when Jesus was consecrated by His parents in the tem- 
ple, we are told that they brought the offering of the very 
poor, — two doves. Upon one occasion when one of His 
friends was to be married, the groom was not able to 
provide sufficient wine, perhaps because of the unex- 
pected appearance of guests who came with Jesus. His 
disciples saved with scrupulous care any food that was 
left over, when they happened to have an abundance. 
Once they did not have money enough between them 
to pay their poll-tax, and when Jesus wished to show an 
illustration by money He had to borrow a shilling to 
do it. The language of Jesus was that of the poor man. 
Not only did He speak a rural dialect, not the language 
of the scholar or philosopher, but He spoke from the 
points of view of the laboring man. The only kinds of 
food He ever mentioned were bread and water, the 
common wine of the country, and the kid or the lamb 
that has been saved for the one fall festival of meat- 
eating or the annual Passover. His friends, Mary and 
Martha, and the mother of Peter's wife, as well as His 
own mother, did their own housework. "If you have 
two cloaks," He once said, as if this were an unusual 
luxury. He spoke of "the lamp" and "the bushel" as 
if there were but one in the house. He begins the Beati- 
tudes, especially as they are given to us in Luke, with 
words for those who are poor and hungry. The Lord's 
Prayer is a poor man's prayer, for it asks for bread for 
the coming day. 

The persons of Jesus' stories are mostly poor. Lazarus 



JESUS REFERS TO HIS TRADE 31 

is a diseased beggar. In the story of the two debtors, 
one owes a poor man's debt. The rich fool is rich only 
as farmers are rich. The man who gave a great dinner 
had only one servant. The story of the feeding of the 
five thousand tells about multiplying bread and fishes, 
the working-man's lunch. The father in the story of 
the prodigal had but one fatted calf. 

The silence of Jesus is as instructive as the things He 
said. From His vague references to kings and courts 
we know that He never saw a king. He refers to natural 
forces, sickness and medicine, not in the language of 
even the elementary science of His time, but in that of 
the common people. Jesus, so far as we know, never 
saw a picture. Probably He never rode a horse. He 
left His native land upon only one occasion, and then for 
only a walking trip. 

Do you realize how often Jesus spoke about His trade ? 
He told once about a man making estimates for a house, 
of another who laid the foundation, of the heavy house 
beams, and of the splinter that got into the working- 
man's eye. He spoke of the double door and the narrow 
wicket gate, and of the few articles of furniture in the 
house. In a recently discovered manuscript Jesus is 
represented as saying, "Raise the stone and thou shalt 
find me; cleave the wood and there am I." That is, — 
when you work as a mason or carpenter, lifting burdens 
or working with tools, "Remember me, the carpenter 
who helps you." In two of the dearest passages in the 
New Testament people have failed to notice that Jesus 
was referring to the daily work of His youth. "Come 
unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy-laden," He 
said. "Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy." 
That is, when a young man, as a yoke-maker he could 
fit wooden yokes to the necks of oxen, so that they could 
more easily draw great loads. These sentences are a 
beautiful way of saying that we can all do hard work 
easier if one who is skilful to fit the burden to us is help- 
ing us. Again He said, "In my Father's house are many 



32 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



mansions. I go to prepare a place for you." In Naza- 
reth the "mansion" possessed only a single room. In 
order to prepare a place for a new family it was necessary 
either to build on a room to the house, or to divide the 
one room by a partition. "Our Father's house," as 
Jesus says, has many rooms, and He, the heavenly car- 
penter, is preparing one for each of the Father's children. 
Like our own Lincoln, the young man Jesus must have 
read and reread the few books He knew, until they meant 
much more to Him than our careless 
reading does now. It is possible for 
us to know, from Jesus' later teach- 
ing, what had impressed and influ- 
enced Him most deeply in the Old 
Testament. It is a very interesting 
matter to study this out. 

His deepest interest was in the 
prophets. The prophets of Israel, es- 
pecially the earlier ones, were public 
men who had the greatest sympathy 
with the poor and the oppressed. It 
is doubtful if any other race ever pro- 
duced a literature whose whole key- 
note was this of social justice. They 
all believed in their country and its 
future, and they told of a kingdom that was to come, 
whose life was righteous and whose conditions were fair 
and happy. The Psalmists put the same thought in 
song, and both the prophets and the singers had faith 
that God, the God of the Hebrews, would bring this 
to pass. 

Jesus did not care for the ceremonial laws, but He 
went back to the simpler enactments, like the Ten Com- 
mandments, and those which had to do with sincere 
worship, benevolence, mercy, friendship and the rela- 
tions of marriage and the home. 

Some passages were especially dear to Him. Those 
referring to the better kingdom we have referred to. 




A Book of the Law. 

From a photograph of an 
ancient roll of the Penta- 
teuch at Shechem. 



JESUS' READING 33 

There are nearly a hundred repetitions in the Book of 
Ezekiel of the phrase "the Son of man," and this is found 
nowhere else in the Old Testament with reference to 
a human prophet. These verses Jesus loved to apply- 
to Himself, as being likewise the special ambassador 
of God. Does not His whole brave life show the influ- 
ence of the teaching in the Fifty-third of Isaiah about 
the one who is to redeem Israel not through conquest 
but by becoming a servant of mankind ? 

Mastery of the spirit of a great collection like the Old 
Testament is gained only by sturdy patience and well- 
won insight. Such a student was Jesus the carpenter. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE MAN WHO HAD A NEW MESSAGE 

When Jesus was about thirty years old a man appeared 
in Judea, whose remarkable personality and influence 
were soon felt a hundred miles away, even as far as the 
secluded village of Nazareth. He was a young man of 
Jesus' own age, the son of a priest, but his experience 
had been a distinct contrast to that of his distant kins- 
man. 

There was among the Jews at that time a small group 
of persons, never mentioned in the Bible, who held so 
firmly to the national anticipations of deliverance that 
they had secluded themselves like monks in order to 
await it. They were known as Essenes. They lived 
together, unmarried, in a kind of monastery. They were 
Jews, but they took no part in the temple service. 

You will be interested to know something about them. 
Philo of Alexandria, who wrote probably before the death 
of Jesus, says that they pursued agriculture and other 
useful arts, but had no care to accumulate money, and 
whatever they possessed they held in common. They 
never married, and they never held slaves. They ob- 
served the Sabbath with great care, and spent much time 
sitting, the older above the younger, listening while those 
who were most wise explained the Scriptures. "Their 
life-long purity and their recognition of a good providence 
showed their love of God. Their love of man revealed 
itself in their kindliness, their equality, their fellowship 
passing all words." Even their tyrants, says Philo, 
had been impressed with their quiet but invincible free- 
dom and their beautiful friendship. 

Pliny the elder, who wrote about fifty years after the 
death of Jesus, says that while they have no children 

34 



THE ESSENES 35 

"the number of their fellows is kept up, for there flock 
to them from afar many who, wearied of battling with the 
rough sea of life, drift into their system." 

Josephus says that, before the rising of the sun, which 
they seem to have reverenced, "they never speak a word 
about profane things." He says also that those who 
joined them were required to be upon probation for three 
years before entering into fellowship. Then they were 
"allowed to join more closely in their way of life and 
partake of a purer quality of the waters of purification." 
This use of "waters of purification" by immersion or 
bathing was also, he says, their daily custom before meals. 

John probably did not become a member of their body, 
but his education seems to have been in their neighbor- 
hood and he may have been their pupil. Their beauti- 
ful order of life may have suggested to him the kingdom 
of brotherhood which was to come, and their ceremonial 
bathing, the rite of baptism as an initiation into it. 
John also retained their ceremonial of fasting, though 
he seems not to have gone to their extremes in Sabbath 
observance. He may have learned from them the belief 
in the equality of man, and the doctrine of the sharing 
of possessions, which he taught. They were a body of 
men who were trying, by uttermost obedience to the 
Law, to bring in the kingdom at once, and from their 
pure example he may have learned to feel that it could 
really be "at hand." 

There was a narrow and intolerant and superstitious 
side to their faith which John also may have shared, but 
in this chief respect he differed from them, that he be- 
lieved their principles should not be shut up to themselves 
in a monastery but carried out where all men might have 
a chance to share them. So John, though he shared 
their solitude for a time, either as their representative 
or as an outcomer from their school, finally appeared 
in the outer world, on the outskirts of the desert beside 
the great highway that leads up from the Jordan to 
Jerusalem. 



36 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



The attraction of John the Baptist was that he was 
a Man. The leaders of the people at this time were 
pedants, merely imitative scholars of the old Scriptures, 
but this youth was an original thinker. The authorities 
in Jerusalem were ritualists and were ever busy about 

tiresome observations. Here 
was one who lived entirely 
above the level of ritual. His 
aim was to reverse the down- 
ward currents of his time. 

His appearance was the strik- 
ing symbol of his personality. 
He was dressed only in a rough 
shepherd's coat of black and 
white camel's hair, fastened at 
the waist by a girdle of lion's 
skin. He lived the life of a 
frontiersman and ate the food 
of the desert. He had a fierce 
face, and he spoke with a 
country dialect and in a voice 
of thunder. He did not weakly lament over the sorrows 
of the nation, and there was nothing compromising 
about his addresses. • 

"What are you here for, you descendants of vipers ?" 
was his startling prologue to those who depended on 
their religious heritage. "Who told you to come here to 
take refuge from the judgment which is approaching ?" 
' ' You say Abraham is your father ? I tell you God can 
make better descendants of Abraham out of these peb- 
bles." 

John thus made a startling break with his own race. 
He also recognized no caste nor distinction in those 
whom he addressed. Some Roman soldiers who were 
thought beneath contempt by the Pharisees asked him 
humbly what they might do to please God. "Use 
violence to no one; exact nothing by false accusations, 
and be content with your pay," was his answer. Some 




John the Baptist Preaching. 



THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF JOHN 37 

tax-collectors who were regarded generally as traitors 
because they were agents of the hated Roman authorities 
volunteered to proffer their services and learn the de- 
mands of God. " Extort no more than the law allows," 
was the prophet's simple reply. It was an easy thing 
to say, but it meant a revolution in their conduct. "If 
you have two cloaks," he said to the multitude, "give 
one to your neighbor." "If you have food share that 
also." Here was evidently a social movement, which, 
if it should succeed, was going to abolish poverty as 
well as racial barriers, and make religion a matter of 
every-day living. But the text of his usual addresses 
which he repeated almost monotonously from day to 
day, was this: "Repent! Repent! For the Kingdom 
of Heaven draws near !" 

We can at least dimly see the secrets of John's influ- 
ence. A rough, vigorous man who knows where he is 
going pushes his way anywhere. A man who curries 
no favor and treats all people alike wins admiration, 
and when one voices a nation's passionate desire and 
asserts that that desire is immediately to be fulfilled 
people see in him a leader and many desire to follow him. 

And yet, when the religious leaders of the nation sent 
a delegation to John to ask him who he was and what he 
was about to do, he simply repeated a quotation from 
an ancient prophecy : 

"I am the Voice of one who cries loudly in the desert: 
Prepare the way of Jehovah. 
Every chasm must be filled up, 
Every hill must be levelled. 
The winding ways must be made straight, 
And the stony pathways smooth, 
And all mankind shall see Salvation from God." 

The most notable act by which John excited the curi- 
osity of those who came to hear him was that of demand- 
ing immediately the ceremony of baptism from those 
who had declared themselves loyal to his teaching. The 



38 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



use of water for ceremonial ablutions was not unknown 
among the Jews, and was practised, as we have seen, by 
the Essenes. But when John led his followers into the 
muddy stream of the Jordan, the nation's one river, 
and immersed them there, there was no doubt in the 
minds of those who subjected themselves to this thorough 
and rather humiliating symbol of purification that he 
was organizing at least the elements of a band of men 
who were set apart for some heroic purpose. Some 
persons saw in him the spirit of their old patriot prophet 




The Jordan River. 
At the traditional place of Christ's baptism. 



(From a photograph.) 



Elijah, who had dared to stand almost alone against the 
plots of the foreign and idolatrous queen Jezebel. Others 
felt that his proclamation of the kingdom meant the 
organizing of a rebellion. 

Jesus hastened from His hilltop home, down the Jor- 
dan valley, to meet John. Through all these years of 
silence He had been studying the same problems which 
John had faced in the desert and He was, no doubt, 
now feeling very clearly that His own great future was 
just at hand. He must have listened to the impassioned 
speaker with admiration. He must have felt toward 
him something of hero-worship. 

But even more than by mere admiration and feeling 
did John impress Jesus. Jesus was a shrewd student of 



JESUS' OPINION OF JOHN 39 

men. He measured His words also. The remark He 
made about John afterward should cause us to revise 
our opinion of this underestimated man. Jesus said of 
him that no greater man had been born among men 
than this same John. Does this seem exaggeration ? But 
consider just what Jesus meant. He did not refer to his 
fame or his personal achievements or even his influence. 
He compared him with the Hebrew prophets, who were 
the greatest men He knew. He considered the vision- 
less times in which John lived and remembered how he 
rose above the greatest of the prophets in his ignoring 
of race and ritual and in his practical demand that men 
should stop waiting for the golden age and should actually 
begin to create it. He saw in him the most inspired and 
also the most effective apostle of human betterment 
who had yet appeared. And can you compare, in these 
two great factors of magnificent conception and prac- 
tical endeavor, any philosopher of Greece or Rome ? 

Jesus qualified His praise of John. He said that chil- 
dren who should live in the kingdom when it should 
actually come would be greater than He, that is, greater 
in their knowledge of what it should really mean to men. 
Jesus differed with John in many ways. For instance, 
He saw God as the God of construction and not of destruc- 
tion, as John did, but it is a strong tribute to His great- 
heartedness that He bowed Himself at the feet of John 
as his follower and allied Himself with this movement for 
the purifying of the nation's life. When Jesus came and 
asked to be baptized by John He was not claiming 
leadership, He was becoming a soldier in the ranks, but 
it was a distinct enlistment. 

And it was then, according to accounts that seem to 
have come from Jesus' own lips, that He felt the Spirit 
of God descend into His life and set Him apart for His 
life-work. 



CHAPTER VII 



JESUS' CHOICE OF A CALLING 

You have been learning what Jesus has been doing. 
What do you suppose has been going on within ? We 
have some valuable accounts, which seem to have come 
originally from Jesus Himself, which tell us so much 
about what Jesus was thinking during these days that 

they may almost be called 
pages from His moral auto- 
biography. 

We generally know these 
stories as "the temptation" of 
Jesus, but that word is hardly 
large enough. They describe 
to us Jesus' choice of a calling. 
Picture the circumstances. 
Jesus feels a sudden reaction 
from the tumult of the crowd. 
He sees the grandeur and He 
sees too the limitations of 
John's idea. All the pent-up 
questions of His early man- 
hood press for answer at once. 
A spiritual voice within Him tells Him that He needs to 
be alone and find out just what His attitude toward life 
is going to be. 

Something of this sort happens when a young man or 
woman comes to the city to begin work or school. He 
leaves much behind, the cosey home atmosphere, the in- 
dulgent and approving faces of his parents and family, 
and the customs and recreations of his neighborhood. 
The ideals that are cherished by those whom he knows 

40 




The River Jordan, near Jericho. 



JESUS IN THE DESERT 41 

and loves meet a real test. He takes up much that is 
new: new work, difficult because unfamiliar, new teach- 
ers or employers and companions and the inspiring 
opportunities of a larger life. How hard it is to be at 
home in the new surroundings, to face each fresh day 
without any guidance but his own wisdom, and how care- 
ful is his task in discriminating between the ideals of his 
old surroundings and of the new, and in deciding which 
shall really be his own. 

And so it was with Jesus. 

Most pressing of all, no doubt, was this inquiry which 
Jesus may have put to Himself, in some such words as 
these: "Here am I, with only one life to invest for My 
Father. Just how am I to put it to service ? How may 
I avoid mistake and waste, and make it count most for 
the kingdom that is coming ? " 

Well, this is the question you too have to answer, 
and you must be interested in trying to learn how Jesus 
faced the problem. 

Many scholars think that it was winter when Jesus 
went down into the desert of Judea. It is a region of 
canons with tawny sides of rock and sand, little vegeta- 
tion, a few scanty brooks and many caverns, in one of 
which perhaps Jesus camped out. Mark states that 
"He was with the wild beasts," but some of the manu- 
scripts read instead, "He was with the Enlightened," that 
is, in a monastery of the Essenes. This reading is prob- 
ably an error. It is not impossible, however, that Jesus 
shared their hospitality. Even to this day this region 
contains many hermit shelters. It is not necessary to 
suppose that Jesus remained entirely in one spot. The 
temptation stories tell us of His being upon an exceedingly 
high mountain and again in the city of Jerusalem. One 
is sometimes never more alone than in a strange city, 
and it is possible that Jesus thought out part of His prob- 
lem walking in the country or even resting in the temple 
courts. 

The fasting too is not to be made too prominent. It 



42 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

was not like Jesus to undertake deliberately to weaken 
His body or to imitate ascetic customs. He was no doubt 
too engrossed to think of food, and His mind grew clearer 
as He freed it from the demands of the body. 

Nor are we to think of the tempter as a Satan with 
hoof and horns, or even, as Bengel has suggested, a scribe, 
who propounded questions that should shake His faith. 



K&fci^sHMaf^lB^'--^'' \ %^'w-w^^ 






.-:}; ..■■■•■• 



_ (From a photograph.) 

The Mount of Temptation. 

The Mount of Temptation (Mons Quarantania) , the traditional scene of Christ's temptation, 
is on the eastern edge of the rugged wilderness of Judea, a few miles north of Jericho. In its 
bare and desolate sides are many holes and caves which were the homes of hermits in past ages. 

He was tempted "in all points as we are," and we are 
never tempted in such fashions. We are always tempted 
from within. 

Indeed if the stories of the temptations represent at 
all what came to Jesus, they must have come from His 
own thoughts, and is it not best to think that He tried, 
as Orientals do, by a series of striking pictures to repre- 
sent what took place in His own heart ? Let us see if 
we can read those pictures. 

The first was temptation of the body. The bodily 
life is good. Jesus was no ascetic. He was a sturdy 
working man. He had great endurance, and wholesome 
physical ideals. 

He had to face the question, Is a life of bodily indulgence 
worth while ? This is the first and hardest temptation 



WHAT THE TEMPTATIONS WERE 43 

which young people have to face. It comes just when the 
bodily energies are at full tide, when the passions are 
fiercest, when the power of self-restraint is least trained, 
when the risks of indulgence are most readily accepted. 

The body has its rights, its innocent joys, its demands 
for satisfaction. 

How did the problem come to Him ? Was He tempted 
by that primal desire, physical indulgence ? We cannot 
deny it, if He were really a man. Was He tempted to 
a life of ease and of luxury? Who has failed to meet 
such enticements ? 

You know how this trial meets you now, the tempta- 
tion to use the body as a toy, to overdo in the quest of 
pleasure, to be hungry for a perpetual good time. Jesus 
did not undervalue or despise any of these things. He 
was even criticised for being too fond of festivals. But 
He decided that it was not worth while to live just for 
these things. Man cannot live upon such things alone. 

There was a sect in Jesus' time that had chosen this 
way of life, and one of the callings that beckoned to Him 
was theirs. They were called Sadducees. They met 
the unrest of Roman rule by saying: "Let us not worry 
about the future. Let us be comfortable and keep out 
of trouble. We will live our own lives, and let the 
country take care of itself." To this group belonged 
many of the priests, most of the educated people and all 
the wealthy people. If Jesus would identify Himself 
with them, His would be an easy life. 

In our own time we see many who yield to this fever 
for indulgence as a life pursuit. The quest for money, 
for luxury, for selfishness has become a national peril. 
Others stand sternly above this passion, which is half 
savage, and work earnestly for the social good. Every 
young person comes to the parting of the ways, and has 
some time to decide where he belongs. 

Jesus came to this point, and He determined that He 
would not side with the party of indulgence. He would 
not be a Sadducee. 



44 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

Next enthusiasm claimed Him. 

Enthusiasm is a good thing. How much the world has 
been moved forward on the strength of the enthusiasts ! 

But enthusiasm has its perils. You know them. 
There is the tendency to "spill over," to overwork for 
a week and then be incapacitated for work for a month; 
to have violent attachments and fierce loyalties, succeeded 
by indifference ; to have hysteria, to do spectacular deeds ; 
to show off ; to bluff ; to do for effect ; to act on shallow 
learning or imperfect preparation; to dream impossible 
achievements and expect magical results. 

This trial came to Jesus. Popularity was easy just 
then. He could easily outdo John. He could state 
things in an attractive manner that would have over- 
shadowed the desert enthusiast. He could climb any 
"pinnacle" and by leaping off gain an open-mouthed 
following. 

There was a party, even a vocation, that represented 
that temptation at that time. They were the Pharisees. 
Originally by their pure principles the Puritan and patri- 
otic leaders of the nation, they had, in their enthusiasm 
for ideal conditions, separated themselves not only from 
the hated Romans but even from the common people. 
They had raised the commentaries on the ancient laws 
to a fetich and they spent all their time anxiously wor- 
shipping them. They anticipated a magical coming of 
a Messiah-Prince who should ride into Jerusalem through 
the air, and in reward for their fidelity to the law do a 
few sensational deeds that should lift Him and them to 
the summit of glory in a kingdom of the miraculous. 

This very sort of temptation meets you now. America 
especially knows the man of the "short cut." Ours has 
been called "the Gilded Age," meaning the age that 
accepts imitations. We prepare for life with shallow 
studies and shoddy work. Much of our prosperity and 
a good deal of our play is gambling. We are guilty of 
inflated living. We expect results without waiting for 
them and without deserving them. 



THE CALL OF POWER 45 

Is it not hard, in school, in society, in business, in poli- 
tics, to belong to the side of sobriety and thoroughness ? 

Jesus determined that He woulclrdo that, and He 
would not be a Pharisee. 

Finally power beckoned to Him. 

Power is good also. Jesus had by this time discovered 
that He was a man of power. You cannot be with men 
without unconsciously measuring yourself, and one of 
the joys of youth is the feeling that one is able, and able 
to match up to the strongest. 

But power is often misused. To-day you know how 
the lawyer often misuses his knowledge, the physician 
his skill, the minister his influence, the business man or 
the corporation of business men their opportunity, the 
strong nation its strength. Ours is an age of power. It 
worships power, and it yields to the men of force. 

Always misused power involves the selling of one's 
ideals. It means that simple, old-fashioned morality 
has to give way to opportunity, and one who yields to 
this temptation can no longer live on good terms with his 
conscience. 

Power had its votaries in Jesus' day. These were the 
Zealots. Jesus later had one of them as a disciple. 
They were revolutionaries, perhaps somewhat like modern 
anarchists. They said: "Let us risk all! Let us start 
riots against our tyrants. Let us call every man a traitor 
who will not fight ! ' ' 

It was an attractive call, and it had its excuse. The 
Jews were truly a subject people, and patriotism seemed 
to counsel resistance. There was also some prospect, 
in those times of unrest, for success. Perhaps Jesus 
could have started a religious war, and become a Mo- 
hammed. 

But the Jews at their best had never proved able to 
govern themselves. The world was not ripe for a re- 
public. Its so-called republics were military despotisms. 
Jesus could have baptized His nation in blood, and per- 
haps risen to the "mountain top" of despotic power. 



46 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

Another group of men who not only sought but pos- 
sessed power existed in the priestly party in Jerusalem. 
They were led by Annas, an ex-high priest, and were of 
the Sadducean faith and practice. They wielded great 
political power, by playing into the hands of the Romans ; 
they retained spiritual dominance by depending upon 
the religious devotion of the people, and they had en- 
riched themselves by seizing the monopoly of the sale 
of whatever was used for the temple sacrifices. Those 
who allied themselves with this unscrupulous group were 
the virtual rulers of Palestine. 

To-day we who are young hear a similar call. The 
lust for power grips us. We see men stand above others 
through sheer lack of conscience. We have in politics 
the demagogue, in society the "climber," in the labor 
world the "grafter," in business the monopolist. Always 
there has been the sale of ideals, the use of unscrupulous 
methods, the denial of brotherhood. The individual 
has, as Jesus would say, "knelt down to Satan." 

Jesus resisted the temptation of "success." He did 
not become a Zealot. He did not join the high-priestly 
party. 

What Jesus finally did, then, in those fierce days in 
the desert was, first : to put His body in its rightful and 
minor place; to curb His enthusiasms within the limits 
of efficiency ; to hold His powers in the sway of conscience. 
He refused money-greed, short cuts and substitutes and 
the degradation of His talents. In our age when we have 
a clan of money-barons, a class of climbers and a group 
of men of conscienceless power who are conspicuous but 
not honored, Jesus would walk soberly apart. 

What calling did Jesus choose ? Let us answer boldly, 
HE CHOSE TO BE THE MESSIAH. Not— let us 
hasten to say — the Messiah-Prince whom the Pharisees 
expected, but the Messiah-Servant whom the noblest 
of the prophets had foreseen. He had read the prophets 
more closely than had even the scribes of the law. He 
saw that the whole sympathy of the prophets was with 






THE TASK OF JESUS 47 

the man who is a servant, the poor and the oppressed. 
For the relief of a nation of such the prophets had asserted 
that a Messiah (the word means an "anointed" or com- 
missioned one) was to come. Jesus seized the hint 
that is found in the Fifty-third of Isaiah. "A nation of 
servants must be saved by their Servant," He had said. 
I will try to be that Servant." 

The task of Jesus through life was to be the Messiah 
which His people needed, but which they did not expect 
or want. How He accomplished this marvellous task 
is the life story of Jesus of Nazareth. 

These choices of Jesus of the great motives and re- 
sponses to duty are so close to our own decisions which 
we are making that they may well-nigh be put in a set 
of personal resolutions, somewhat as follows: 

I will make my comforts, my leisure, my pleasures 
help and not hurt the life of the spirit ; 

I will care little whether men know me, but much 
whether they feel me ; 

I will not get power or wealth at the price of compromise 
with my conscience and I will use whatever wealth or 
power comes to me as a steward of my Father; 

And in all my choices I will never forget that I am a 
son of God, 



CHAPTER VIII 
HOW JESUS WENT ABOUT HIS WORK 

Just at this point when we are most eager to know how 
Jesus put His life choices into effect, the evangelists leave 
us without complete information. 

We know in a general way that, not long after the 
baptism of Jesus, the public work of John closed as 
suddenly as it had begun. The arrest of the fearless 
preacher ended his mission. Henceforth he decreased 
as Jesus increased in public notice. 

Jesus returned to His own province and began to re- 
peat the substance of the message which John had spoken : 
' ' The time is fulfilled ! The kingdom of God is at hand I 
Repent, and believe in the good news ! " 

The evangelists are so entirely intent upon the public 
life of Jesus that we get only an occasional glimpse of 
the personal side. We do, however, by careful scrutiny, 
find that, behind the public teaching, Jesus was contin- 
ually engaged in personal conversation. This method 
probably, if we could know all the facts, would turn out 
to have been the most effective instrument that He used. 
You will recall in your own life that while you have often 
been stirred by some public address, the real changes of 
your thought and act have been more greatly helped by 
personal converse with a friend. It is a slow method and 
few have the patience to depend upon it, but Jesus saw 
that if He were to lead a nation toward righteousness He 
must begin to help make a nation of righteous persons. 

When Jesus began to gather about Himself a circle of 
comrades, as we shall see Him doing in the next chapter, 
it meant the beginning of daily conferences with them 
which continued for a space of two or three years. He 
therefore spent more time in this way of personal approach 

48 



THE SAMARITAN WOMAN 



49 



than in any other. Many of His teachings which we 
think of as having been delivered in public address are 
no doubt handed down to us out of the memories of those 
to whom they first came not as discourses but who took 
part in them through question and dialogue in quiet 
interviews with Jesus alone. 

The fourth and latest of the Gospels emphasizes this 
■eature of Jesus' work, but as it places events in order 





Entrance to Vault over Jacob's 
Well. 



The Vault and the Mouth of 
the Well. 



Jacob's well has been covered by a succession of churches, the last of which was destroyed at 
he time of the Crusades. Many of the ruins now remain. The mouth of the well is several 
eet below the present surface of the ground, and is approached by steps leading through a small 
ioorway into a vaulted chamber about fifteen feet square. 



oi argument rather than of time we are not always sure 
low the conversations which it reports are to be dated. 
There is one conversation, one of the first related in the 

ospel according to John, which we are sure from its 
contents did not come early in Jesus' ministry, but which 
;he author places there because it is so typical. 

The evangelist speaks of Jesus as having come at mid- 
lay to the well of Jacob which is between mounts Ebal 
md Gerizim in Samaria, near a hamlet called Sychar. 
ie sits down beside the well, tired and dusty, while His 



50 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

companions go into the village to buy food. While He 
is there a woman of the village comes out to draw water. 

The story puts before us an individual who would 
seem to be hopeless as a subject for moral betterment 
by personal approach. In the first place, she was a 
Samaritan, a member of that mongrel race whom all 
Jews despised and who, set in the isolation of contempt 
in the heart of the land, had come in time to deserve 
most of the contempt that had been heaped upon them. 
They were regarded as many Christians to-day regard 
mormons. Although they had in times past been 
aggressive enemies of the Jews, they had Hebrew blood 
in their veins and in their own temple on the top of Mount 
Gerizim they continued to sacrifice according to what 
they held to be the primitive Jewish Custom. This fact 
added sectarian to racial hatred between the two peoples. 
This woman herself was, as her appearance showed, 
dissolute in character, and probably, as her untimely 
coming to the well suggests, a lazy slattern. It was 
then regarded as a breach of etiquette for a man to hold 
conversation in any public place with any woman not of 
his own family. The criticism which the companions 
of Jesus expressed of Him on their return was quite 
natural. Most rabbis would have entirely avoided so 
difficult and delicate a situation, by refraining from notic- 
ing the woman. It might have been questioned by any 
man whether there was any helpful fellowship possible 
between himself and one who was bad and idle and 
thoughtless. And especially so here. The life of the 
pure-minded Jesus was like a volume bound in gold, hers 
was like a yellow journal. 

The Fourth Gospel tells us how Jesus instantly threw 
aside conventionality and, seeing here a fellow creature 
who was in bitter though unconscious need, endeavored 
by friendliness to help her. The conversation that fol- 
lowed is rightly regarded as one of the most remarkable 
dialogues in history. 

How would you win the friendliness of an evil-doer: 



THE SAMARITAN WOMAN 51 

By doing him a favor. This is the natural answer, but 
there is a deeper one. By allowing him to do you a 
: avor. To do a favor may make its recipient uncomfort- 
able, but he who does you a favor is at once set at ease 
and feels presumptively friendly. 

There was only one favor which the Samaritan woman 
could do Jesus, and He asked it. 

"Will you give me a drink of water ?" ^ 

As the woman sank her bucket into the well, which 
was over a hundred feet deep, she could not forbear 
referring to the ancient feud. 

"You must be very thirsty to be asking for a drink 
:rom a Samaria woman." 

Jesus probably told her that He did not share in the 
old prejudice, but went on to say that He too could give 
a favor if asked. 

"There is a thirst which I too can help to quench, 
[f you should ask Me I could tell you of a living water 
setter than this." 

The Orientals are fond of talking in pictures, and the 
woman knew that this statement of Jesus was a puzzle, 
which she was asked to solve. But she chose to be 
xivolous. 

"Sir, you know that you have nothing to draw with, 
and the well is deep. Are you greater than our father 
Jacob who dug this well, and gave drink here to himself 
and his sons and his cattle ? ' ' 

"After one has drunk of this water one becomes thirsty 
again, but if you should have the water that I can give, 
you will never again be thirsty. The water that I shall 
give will become in you a well of water, springing up 
unto eternal life." 

But the woman, who could see plainly now that He 
was asking her to think of His deeper meaning, refused 
to be serious. 

"Ah, sir," she said yawning, "do give me this well of 
water, so that I shall not be thirsty and have to come 
clear out here." 



52 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

Jesus had been willing to break the rules of etiquette 
so long as the woman offered the same respect which He 
showed to her, but when she became, silly He could do 
nothing but ask that the conversation should continue 
according to Oriental notions of propriety. 

"Go and call your husband," He said quietly. 

"I haven't any husband," she answered airily. 

The face of Jesus was downcast as He said in a low tone : 

"The man with whom you are living — is not — your 
husband?" 

There was a moment of silence. The tone of Jesus 
was, strangely enough, not of reproach but of pity. Still 
mockingly, but no longer smiling, the woman said, 

"You are a soothsayer, I see." 

Although she was embarrassed, the woman did not go. 
As if she would atone for her frivolity, she turned the 
conversation in a religious direction, and as though she 
would essay to prove that she was correct as a theologian 
even if she was imperfect as a moralist, she pointed to 
the temple on the adjoining hill. 

"Our forefathers worshipped on yonder mountain, 
but your people say that Jerusalem is the place where 
men ought to worship." 

"Woman," said Jesus earnestly ("woman" was a title 
of respect, and Jesus had not used it before in speaking 
to her), "believe Me, the time is coming when men will 
worship our Father neither in this mountain nor in 
Jerusalem. God is spirit, and they that worship Him 
then shall worship Him in spirit and in truth. The Father 
seeks to have such to worship Him." 

We have only the briefest note of the remainder of 
the conversation. The writer of the Fourth Gospel 
represents the woman as saying, after a further dialogue 
perhaps, that the Messiah would some time appear, when 
He would explain everything. He also states that 
Jesus revealed to the woman that He Himself was the 
Messiah. Though Jesus himself was conscious of this 
fact, such a revelation, as we shall see, could have come 



STUDYING HUMAN NEEDS 53 

only very late in the life of Jesus, when He had prepared 
His friends to receive it, and He could have said this to 
the woman only after an explanation of Himself and of 
her relation to the Father to which she yielded in the 
most honest and complete surrender. The incident 
leads, in John's Gospel, to the going of Jesus to the village 
and remaining there with the Samaritan inhabitants for 
two days. 

The explanation which Jesus gave His friends when 
they returned shows the purpose of relating this dialogue. 
They did not dare to reproach Him aloud for talking with 
the woman, but they looked their feelings. 

"Rabbi, have something to eat," said one of them 
coldly. 

"I have had meat that you do not know about." 

"Has anybody brought him some meat?" one asked 
stupidly. 

It was early spring. Jesus pointed across the open 
meadow, along which the woman was departing with 
her water-pot on her head. 

"You say it is winter, and that it will be four months 
before harvest. Look, I tell you; the fields are already 
white for harvest." 

And as they saw the woman and the distant village 
and understood His enigma, He continued, 

"You speak of meat? It is meat to me to do the 
Father's will, and to accomplish His work." 

And this was the chief method by which He did it. 

The evangelists suggest many other occasions where 
Jesus was no doubt as masterfully efficient in studying 
a human need and meeting it with tact and patience 
and wisdom. They tell us of His going to a wedding, 
they show Him walking with a few men on the Sabbath 
through the grain, the Fourth Gospel places Him on a 
housetop in solitary converse with a ruler of the Jews. 

There is another conversation, given only in Luke's 
Gospel, the time of the occurrence of which is not given, 
which illustrates further the tact of Jesus in dealing with 



54 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

a sinful person and His courage in meeting, at the same 
time, the criticism of one who boasted himself of his own 
goodness. 

He had been invited to dinner by a Pharisee in a place 
that is not named. 

The Pharisee had invited Jesus, not so much to be his 
guest as to be the object of his criticisms, and to exhibit 
Him to his friends. Jesus was being scrutinized by the 
Pharisaic party, and in a sense He was on trial this day. 

The dining-room was full not only of guests, but also 
of others who, according to the curious custom of the 
times, gathered along the wall to watch the diners. 
Among them had come a woman who had been living 
a sinful life. Whether she was there, in harmony with 
a lately introduced Roman custom, to anoint the hair 
and feet of all the guests as they reclined on the long 
couches, we do not know, nor whether she had been 
sent in by the Pharisee who was giving the feast or had 
come on her own accord. Her coming brought Jesus 
into a dilemma. "If Jesus is a real prophet," no doubt 
thought Simon the Pharisee, "He will know what kind 
of a person she is, and He will not allow her to touch 
Him. If He does allow her, we shall discount His claims 
as a prophet." 

But when she came to Jesus and knelt beside Him, 
Jesus did not repulse her, and, as she performed her 
gracious task, He could feel her tears falling silently 
upon His feet. He did not speak to her, even in kind- 
ness, for to have done so would have exposed her to 
ridicule. What followed next is one of the most exquisite 
instances of tact in history. 

"Simon," said Jesus quietly from His place near the 
foot of the table, "I would like to speak to you." 

"Yes, Rabbi," said the Pharisee condescendingly. 

1 ' Once upon a time two men were in debt to a money- 
lender. One owed one hundred dollars, the other ten 
dollars. Neither of them could pay him his debt. The 
lender of money freely forgave them both. I would 



THE PENITENT 



55 



like to ask you, which of them, do you suppose, would 
feel the greater love for the money-lender ?" 

"Why," said Simon at once, "of course the one to 
whom he forgave the much greater debt." 

1 ' Precisely, ' ' answered Jesus. 

Then for the first time He turned toward the woman, 
and without pointing her out He continued : 

"There is a woman here. When I came into your 
house, you did not give me 
any water for my feet, but she 
wet them — with her tears, and 
dried them with her hair. No 
kiss of greeting did you give 
me, but she, since I sat here, 
has not ceased to kiss my feet. 
You did not sprinkle even 
my head with oil, but she has 
covered my feet with perfume. 
And," He said, smiling down 
into the woman's face, "you 
may see that she is greatly 
forgiven, because she greatly 
loves." 

As she went out, Jesus 
spoke to her directly for the first time, saying clearly, 
"Your sins are forgiven." 

Then He turned sternly to His host, as He Himself 
went away: "Those who have little forgiven them, love 
but little." 

Two deep impressions are ours after reading this con- 
versation: the wonderful insight of Jesus in taking the 
only good quality which the poor woman seemed to have, 
her capacity for love, and making that the means of lead- 
ing her to a better life, and the passionateness of such 
love which Jesus inspired in the hearts of the wretched 
persons who trusted Him. This unfailing ability to dis- 
cern at once whatever good qualities were possessed by 
those who met Jesus characterized all His work. 




The Woman Anointing Jesus' Feet. 



CHAPTER IX 
HIS EARLY COMRADES 



The writer of the Fourth Gospel tells us that a few of 
the men who had believed in John the Baptist turned 
to Jesus as their leader after his imprisonment. He 
names especially Peter and Andrew, two brothers, who 
were fishermen in the town of Capernaum, a city beside 
the Lake of Galilee about twenty miles northeast of 

Nazareth. Jesus may have 
known these men before, as it 
is possible that He had already 
moved His own home to that 
place. 

There seems to have been 
an opportunity given them by 
Jesus to realize that He was 
going to take up the work of 
John in the province of Gali- 
lee, and probably He gave 
them some time in their homes 
to consider whether they 
would give up their business 
and spend their lives with 
Him. It was not a call to 
sacrifice, but to spend their 
time in something better. "You have been good fisher- 
men," Jesus said. "Now come and be better ones; come 
and catch men alive." He also called two other fisher- 
men from the same village. He seems to have invited 
them two by two, so that they would be companions for 
each other. 

Perhaps some months before this time, perhaps at 
this time, Jesus showed that He wished to make the fisher- 

56 




(From a photograph copyright by 
Wm. H. Rau, Phila.) 

Fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. 



CAPERNAUM 57 

men His partners in a very real fashion, by moving down 
from Nazareth and establishing His home for the rest of 
His life in their own city of Capernaum. It was as if 
He would say : "I will not ask you to come up where I am, 
among strangers, but I will come down where you are. 
We will go to work to meet the needs of your own city, 
which you know so well. You shall help show me 
what those needs are, and together we will try to meet 



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The Shore at Khan Minyeh. 

Cuts from "Leeper photographs," copyright, 1902. 

Many suppose that Capernaum was situated at the modern Tell Hum, about two miles west 
of the Jordan river. Others locate it at Khan Minyeh, two and a half miles farther west. The 
balance of opinion favors the latter site. 

them." There were other reasons why Jesus decided to 
move from Nazareth. Nazareth was not on any main 
thoroughfare. It had little intercourse with strangers 
and little interchange of thought. It was not central 
to a large population. The people there were too much 
accustomed to Him to appreciate Him. 

Capernaum was a considerable city, on the northwest 
shore of the beautiful heart-shaped lake of Galilee, 
whose white walls were reflected in its limpid water. 
The lake lay deep among yellow hills, — a sapphire sea 
in a cup of gold. The city stood on a tongue of land 
along a shining beach. Its gardens, its trees and its 
flowers were famous. The little lake on which it fronted 



58 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

was five hundred feet below the level of the sea, and it 
had a hot and fertile climate. There were other active 
towns along its shore, in the largest of which stood the 
palace of their governor, Herod the tetrarch. 

You can hardly imagine John the Baptist living in 
this kind of town. He had called people away from 
their homes into a lonely place and demanded that they 
listen to his stern message. Jesus went down into the 
heart of the city where multitudes lived, and began to 
live such a life and to say such helpful words that people 
were won to Him. Is it not startling when we remember 
all that Jesus was, to think of real people having Him 
as their neighbor ? It is probable that He was known 
at first simply as "The young carpenter, who has come 
down from Nazareth to live among us." 

Why do you think these four fishermen were willing 
to break off their work and live another life with Jesus ? 
They must have known very little about Him up to this 
time, because we find later how poorly they understood 
Him. They must have been men of vigorous and inde- 
pendent thought, for they had gone far out of their way 
in order to hear John, and perhaps had already expressed 
a willingness to give up their fishing in order to be help- 
ful to him. They were the kind of men who were willing 
to do hard things for the cause in which they believed. 
The tradition is that they were young men with the 
fresh enthusiasm of their years. We are certain, too, 
that they must have shared the expectations of their own 
people as to a coming deliverance, and these expectations 
must have been quickened by what they had heard John 
say, but the fact that they were willing to turn to Jesus 
shows that His person had already impressed them very 
deeply. What do you suppose there was about Jesus 
which could win such strong men as these? From our 
knowledge of His conversation with the woman at the 
well we can imagine how tactful and winsome He must 
have been to everybody. But if these disciples, as we 
know from John's Gospel, were dismayed to find Him 




Copyright by Underwood & Underwood. 

FISHERMEN BY THE SEA OF GALILEE. 



THE FISHERMEN 59 

talking with the woman, especially a woman of such a 
race and of such a character, when they decided to stand 
by Jesus they must have determined that, in spite of 
things they did not like or could not understand, He was 
the one leader in the world for them. 

Perhaps the most important thing for us to realize is 
that Peter and Andrew began to follow Jesus because 
they liked Him. We are not to think of them as two 
theological students starting to study with a minister. 
We must think of them as two fishermen who had taken 
a great fancy to a carpenter. Their friendship began 
as our friendships do. The account in Luke describes 
a kindness that Jesus did them when they were at their 
daily work. The first place to which John's Gospel 
mentions Jesus as taking His new-found friends is to a 
wedding. The men who first followed Jesus did give 
up all, but they themselves never counted that. They 
believed from the very beginning that to be with Him 
was worth more to them than their daily work and in- 
come. They remind one of a veteran home missionary 
who had undergone many hardships. Some one was 
condoling with him for his many "sacrifices." "Sacri- 
fices ? " said he, "I never made but one, and that was the 
choice that I would be a missionary !" 

So then, they liked Him. This was the first attraction. 
But there was another one that was deeper. These 
young men, wholesome and natural, were also deeply 
religious. The Jews are a serious-minded people, and 
these fishermen discovered beneath the winsomeness of 
Jesus a great reverence of soul. The baptism of Jesus, 
we are sure, had been the crisis of His life. He was never 
in rebellion against God. The awakening of His boyhood 
in the temple had been followed by quiet and manly 
years of service. But just as truly as He had felt Him- 
self called to care for His mother and His brothers and 
sisters until they no longer needed all His time, so the 
years had taught Him there was a wider work for Him 
to do. To Him the world appeared as a larger family, 



60 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



in which God was the Father of all. To this world 
family He would fain go as a brother. So when He en- 
listed in the movement of John, as a step toward the 
discovery of His special mission, it is not strange that 
"the Daughter of the Voice of God," as the Jews named 
any revelation from above, seemed to whisper as the motto 
of His life that phrase from an ancient Psalm: "Thou 
art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." From that 

day He had felt Himself pe- 
culiarly the Son of the Father, 
for man's service. It is pos- 
sible that He did not yet 
know all that this should 
mean to Him, but such a sense 
of having been chosen by the 
most high God must have 
made His face sweet and 
strong, as if a king should 
tell his son that he has made 
him viceroy, for the good of 
his subjects. All of us have 
the privilege of such a com- 
missioning. Paul felt it, when 
he burst forth once in the splendid phrase: "We are am- 
bassadors of God." What power and influence it gives 
to one to be thus made the instrument of the Eternal ! 

The sensitive hearts of these good Galileans responded 
instantly to the influence of such a life. 

These four men eventually seem to have become the 
most effective friends whom Jesus had. They were 
closest to Him throughout His life. They best under- 
stood Him, and we have a little more definite knowledge 
concerning their future than regarding any other of the 
companions of Jesus. 

Peter, as we shall see, was not only the leader of the 
band of men whom Jesus called to surround Him during 
His lifetime, but he was their natural leader after Jesus' 
departure. It was he who first gave up his Jewish prej- 




St. Peter. 
By Fra Bartolommeo. 






THE FUTURE OF THE FISHERMEN 61 

udices and granted that Romans might share the life 
which Jesus proclaimed. The tradition has come down 
that it was in the city of Rome that he completed his 
ministry as the leader of the early church there, being 
crucified head downward, upon the spot where now stands 
the greatest church in Christendom. 

John, it is believed, died a natural death, after a long 
and useful ministry in the great city of Ephesus in Asia 
Minor. 

James, his elder brother, was not permitted to express 
his loyalty through years of toil and suffering, but fell 
the first victim of the Twelve in the persecution under 
Herod Agrippa. 

Of Andrew's later days we know nothing, but an early 
story is that he perished upon a cross of the shape which 
is now known as "St. Andrew's Cross," in his mission 
field in Greece. 

Such were the heroic destinies of the stalwart men whom 
Jesus made His first friends. 



i 






CHAPTER X 
HOW JESUS LIVED IN HIS NEW HOME 

It was a great change for Jesus when He came to live 
in Capernaum. Nazareth was an austere town, a stony 
village of vine-dressers, farmers and shepherds. Caper- 
naum was opulent in scenery as well as in prosperity. It 
was built, we believe, upon the shore of the Lake of 
Galilee, with a sandy beach on its eastern side and the 
great plain of Gennesaret, filled with other lively towns, 
stretching to the southwest. It was itself near the end 
of a valley that came down from the north and only a 
little way from the entrance of the Jordan into the lake. 
Down this valley came the great highroad from Damascus, 
which extended on, by way of Jerusalem or by way of 
the Mediterranean coast, to Egypt. 

The location of the city, nearly seven hundred feet 
below the sea-level, made it a hot basin, in which vegeta- 
tion was tropical. Where now are scrubby bushes were 
once great woods, and instead of the occasional palms 
and oleanders of the present were graceful groups of trees 
and many fragrant gardens. The blue lake in front of 
the town made a beautiful contrast with the greenery 
of the shores, and the sudden winds which swept down 
upon the lake from the chilly mountains at the north 
brought frequent exhibitions of nature's grandeur, in 
thunder-storms, beating rains and gorgeous sunsets. 

Although the very site of Capernaum is still so much in 
doubt that scholars are divided upon two meadows, with 
scant ruins, two miles apart, we can almost construct the 
town plan. There was no doubt a main street, narrow 
as all Oriental streets are, which was parallel to or even 
ran along the beach. There was an open square by the 

62 



THE LIFE OF CAPERNAUM 



63 




city spring, which was the town centre. Very likely the 
city was enclosed by a low wall and near the city gate 
was the office of Matthew, the tax-collector. Along the 
main street, which, as we have said, perhaps faced the 
lake, were little shops, the fronts of homes, with all their 
wares displayed in their shallow niches. Still narrower 
lanes reached back from the water, along which were 
the bare, unbroken fronts of the houses, and in some 
secluded lane stood the 
synagogue, a square, 
stone building, with no 
ornament except a pot 
of manna carved over 
the doorway. 

The city was full of 
noise, crowds and color. 
Every morning the 
beach thronged with 
fishermen, just in from 
a night on the deep, with 
their families, mending 

their nets and selling their fish. Around the spring was a 
continually passing file of women with water-pots. Along 
the main street stalked lordly camels, laden with bright 
bales, and accompanied by men who spoke many lan- 
guages. At market and feast times these passers were 
increased by village processions and groups of foreign 
Jews coming home and hastening to perform their relig- 
ious duties. These strangers sometimes halted at the 
modest city taverns or even attended the synagogue if 
overtaken by the Sabbath. The nearness of Herod's 
capital, the new city of Tiberias, eight miles south, as 
well as the accessibility of Capernaum, brought some 
foreigners to live in the city, and there were always a 
hundred Roman soldiers or so in the city barracks. 

One can see that the life of Capernaum was a more lib- 
eral one than that of Nazareth. There was the gradual 
absorption of foreign ways and the necessary tolerance 



Ruins of a Synagogue in Galilee. 



64 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

of alien ideas. Capernaum was also less dominated 
by the Pharisees than was Jerusalem, the capital, for 
while the few who belonged to that school who lived in 
the city were no doubt influential by wealth and posi- 
tion, yet the Galileans, especially those in the large 
towns, shared an independence of thought which had been 
characteristic ever since the Ten Tribes separated from 
Judea. Especially in patriotism were the Capernaum 
people more brave than the Jerusalemites, for they had 
neither been cowed by constant display of armies nor 
wooed to compliance by the profitableness of catering 
to their conquerors. Capernaum was, like the rest of 
Galilee, governed by an independent ruler, Herod Anti- 
pas, who had a title only less than that of king, and whose 
control was characterized by cunning and tactfulness. 
This had, however, not prevented the home-loving Gali- 
leans from contempt of the man who had stolen away his 
brother's wife, and the preaching of John the Baptist 
had no doubt fomented an unrest which made the Gali- 
leans ready for an opportunity for revolt against one, 
who, though Idumean and Samaritan in blood, was Ro- 
man in morals and ideals. 

To this city, a business centre rather than a centre of 
culture, a town of mixed population, a fevered, turbulent 
community, Jesus came for His manhood's home, making 
it, as the Gospels affectionately say, "his own city," and 
thus sharing the life not only of His personal friends but 
of this city and of the others which constituted the heart 
of His chosen province. 

We may perhaps believe that Jesus lived in Caper- 
naum longer than some chronological tables that have 
been made allow, for the deep influence of Jesus in the 
community and upon those who attended Him suggests 
the need of time for men to know Him, to become attached 
to Him and to absorb His message. 

The earliest Gospel tells us that Jesus made at least 
His temporary home when He first came to Capernaum 
with Simon Peter. Peter was married and perhaps had 




pyright by Underwood & Underwood. 

IX THE COURT OF A VILLAGE HOME, CANA OF GALILEE. 



JESUS' NEIGHBORS 



65 



children, and there was also his wife's mother and prob- 
ably his brother Andrew in the family. With the east- 
ern ideas of liberal hospitality, we may be sure that Jesus 
shared the best such a home had to give, but it adds to 
the sympathy which the many to-day who live in boarding- 
houses must feel for Jesus that He knew for some time 
what it is to lack privacy and to miss the sanctity that 
comes from having a home of 
one's own. 

There is an interesting and 
almost amusing story in the 
Gospel of Mark, in the second 
chapter, to show how people 
invaded His home life. He 
had been away for a little 
while, and when He came back 
the neighbors filled the house 
to such an extent that nobody 
else could get in. A helpless 
man was brought by four of 
his friends on a cot. They 
were so anxious to bring him' 
to the attention of Jesus that 
when they found they could 
not enter by the door, they did not wait for the meeting 
to break up, but they climbed up the outside stairway and 
tore open the flat roof, which, as we know, was made of 
rows of long poles covered with mortar or mud. Jesus 
could easily mend this Himself, because that was His 
trade, but the story shows how sure His neighbors felt 
of His good will and willingness to be of service. 

A glimpse or two is given us of some of Jesus' neigh- 
bors. Two of them are mentioned because they were 
two whom most people would not have made their friends. 
One of them was the captain of the Roman garrison. 
This cultured and broad-minded officer had become so 
friendly to the Jewish faith that he had actually furnished 
the money to build them their synagogue. A very 



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The Man Let Down Through 
the Roof. 



66 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



beautiful story is told, representing this nobleman as 
receiving Jesus with the very greatest honor, and Jesus 
in return speaking words of praise of him, which He had 
not been able to speak of any of His own countrymen. 
Another friend whom He made was the customs collector, 
Levi, or Matthew. This man was a Jew in the employ 
of the Herodian government, and for that reason was 
regarded as worse than a traitor by his patriotic neigh- 
bors. The fact that he had 
become rich was thought the 
greater cause for suspicion. 
Jesus not only went directly 
to him at his public stall by 
the city gate, where everybody 
could see Him, but He also 
asked him to become one of 
His comrades. Levi, as the 
expression of his pathetic 
gratitude, signalized his de- 
sertion of his lucrative, but 
ignoble business, by inviting 
Jesus to dinner. The situation 
was embarrassing socially to 
one who expected to keep the 
good will of His neighbors, 
who had long ago ostracized Levi, but Jesus met it bravely 
by cordially accepting the invitation. 

Let us not make too much of a break between the life 
of Jesus at Nazareth and at Capernaum. If He was a 
plain man in Nazareth, occasionally taking part modestly 
in the synagogue service and expressing Himself chiefly 
through personal conversation and friendships, let us 
think that this was the way He began to live at Caper- 
naum. We are not to think of Him as a city ''preacher," 
for while He was allowed to speak in the house of worship, 
there were two recognized classes of speakers, the author- 
ized interpreters of the law, and those who made their 
own original comments, and Jesus was classed as one of 




(Copyright, 1896, by J. J. Tissot.) 
The Call of Matthew. 



JESUS' DAILY LIFE 



67 



the latter. Neither are we to think of Jesus as a " pas- 
tor," going around making calls. To mingle thus freely 
with women in their homes was unknown in Jesus' day. 
Liberal as the Capernaum people were, the fact that 
Jesus never fasted (and perhaps never offered sacrifice) 
and that He took long walks in the fields and engaged in 
deeds of helpfulness on Sabbath days prevented His 
being regarded as in any sense the recognized religious 
head of the community. Another habit which prevented, 
if nothing else did, His being hailed as the chief rabbi of 
Capernaum was His attitude 
toward men and women of 
doubtful character. A rabbi 
thought the best way to 
show hatred for sin was to 
show contempt for a sinner, 
so no rabbi ever spoke to a 
man or a woman of ill fame. 
Jesus, on the contrary, took 
special pains to help such 
folk to change their way of 
living and He aroused criti- 
cism by doing so. 

He was at first simply a 
new-comer, who gradually made close friends, who came 
where the citizens gathered and made one of the convers- 
ing group, who sometimes spoke in the synagogue. Even- 
ings and the Sabbath were the only moments of leisure for 
men in this workingman's city, and almost all the inci- 
dents related of Jesus' doings in Capernaum occurred at 
those times. Could He have taught at times in the public 
school ? If finally people loved to listen to Him so much 
that they thronged Him until He had to climb upon a 
boat seat by the beach, if as a good citizen His part in 
relieving the suffering of the sick in the city brought 
crowds to His house door at night, if the hands whose 
nails were broken with toil and the voice that had so 
often been heard in friendly greeting were used to hasten 




Jairus' Daughter. 



68 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

the recovery of His little neighbor, the daughter of Jairus, 
it simply means that He had become a wellspring of 
blessing to Capernaum, but without a title of honor, 
just the first citizen of His city. The Gospel according 
to Mark pictures Him as a man of tireless energy and of 
eager earnestness. It throbs with the frequent word 
"straightway," as if Jesus were constant in friendly 
service and instant in efficient aid. Is it not helpful to 
think that Jesus Himself was the first Christian, and that 
His life in the town that was His home was an ideal for a 
good friend, a good neighbor, a good citizen now ? 

Another difficulty which Jesus had to meet was lack 
of sympathy on the part of His own relatives. Their 
opposition to His manner of life grew rather than less- 
ened. One authority (Edersheim) supposes that Jesus 
knew in His own home circle the influence of three of the 
purest but most bigoted Jewish tendencies: "the earnest- 
ness of the Shammaites represented in James, the buoy- 
ancy of the Messianic watchers, represented in Jude, and 
the fervor of the nationalistic idea, represented in Simon 
the Zealot," whom he thinks to have been a cousin of 
Jesus. What would men like these have thought of 
Jesus' alliance with John the Baptist ? Must they not 
have watched with concern the development of new 
ideas in His mind when He was yet a young man at 
home with them or coming and going as an itinerant 
artisan? At first they thought He was singular, and 
finally they made up their minds that He was insane. 
We cannot even separate His mother, as she is represented 
in the Gospel story, from the rest of His relatives in this 
respect. On one occasion she and Jesus' brothers seem 
to have made an effort to take Jesus by force and compel 
Him to desist from His chosen career. 

Another difficulty was the lack of quiet. The life of 
a tropical town is lived largely in the open air, and the 
moment one steps out of doors one is in the midst of a 
crowd. But soon Jesus' home began to be invaded. 
On days when the synagogue was closed those who wished 



JESUS' HORIZON 



69 



to talk with Him and listen to Him seem to have used 
His home as an assembly place, and it is not hard to 
imagine how, on a winter evening, when He and Peter 
had sat down before the open fire to talk, there would 
come the patter of sandals on the flagging outside, and 
when the door was opened by Jesus there would be the 
flash of lanterns in the dark lane outside and the news 
of some sickness or sorrow for whose relief Jesus was 
wanted. 

It must have been hard, with the problem of self- 
support and the constant pressure of the throng and the 





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Tiberias. 
A modern town on the Sea of Galilee. 



interruptions to His rest, for Him to get any time to Him- 
self. Yet He would not let the spiritual get crowded 
out, and so we are not surprised to hear Mark tell us of 
nights when He tried to find a solitary place where He 
could pray and think. 

While Jesus was thus being taught by doing, He was 
not forgetful of the larger life which He was preparing 
to live. Even when His comrades in Capernaum exul- 
tantly told Him, "Everybody is seeking you," He assured 
them that He intended to lead them out from Caper- 
naum to spread His movement of brotherhood and mercy 
throughout their entire native province. He gave His best 
to His neighbors in Capernaum, but every day He did so 



70 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

He looked forward to the time when this strength which 
He gained as He gave should be shared by many. This 
vision was Jesus' horizon. 

Already people who had visited Capernaum had gone 
back to tell their friends about Jesus. People from 
other places began to come to Him, and it was plain 
that Capernaum could not hold Him much longer. When 
He did go forth to the larger world, to serve it, it was 
of great help, not only to His reputation, but also to 
His mission, that He had for years been a working artisan, 
a neighbor, a citizen, a man with a record and with a 
broad human experience. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE MEN WHO TOLD US ABOUT JESUS 

We get the impression from the Gospels that Jesus 
gradually made friends for Himself, very much in the 
way in which we do. Some of our new comrades are 
introduced to us by old friends. So Jesus received His 
first two intimate companions, Peter and Andrew, from 
John the Baptist. We often find our friends in our daily 
work. Jesus, the carpenter, came down to Capernaum 
to live, and there He came to know more intimately 
some of the fishermen. We find some of our friends in 
the business world. Jesus saw Levi, the tax-collector, 
frequently at the town gate, and there formed his ac- 
quaintance. 

Jesus finally singled out some men who accompanied 
Him in all of His ministry, who were known by the 
special title of "Apostles." The word "Apostle" means 
one who is not only a messenger but a delegate, bear- 
ing a commission. It is somewhat like the term ambassa- 
dor. "An Apostle," says the Talmud, "is as the man 
himself by whom he is deputed." They were twelve in 
number, the same number as that of the tribes of Israel, 
and thus emblematic of a national movement. 

We do not know very much about the character and 
history of the Apostles of Jesus. Some very interesting 
facts appear, however, as to His method in choosing them. 
The twelve, who are mentioned, were always named in 
sets of four. They seem also to be named in pairs. 
Though the order of names differs in the four lists, Peter 
is always at the head of the first four, Philip of Bethsaida 
of the second, and James the Little, of the third. There 
| seem to have been either two or three sets of brothers, 

71 



72 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



and it is believed that two, and possibly four, of the 
twelve were relatives of Jesus. Apparently all but one 
of them came from Galilee, and perhaps all but two from 
Capernaum. At least four of them were fishermen. 
All this indicates that Jesus' desire was to bring together 
a body of men, bound together by every possible human 
tie of neighborhood, kinship, habit of life and religious 
feeling. They were to be a family of brothers. That 
Jesus believed men could work together who did not al- 










&*»o ^ « ,v v v " :h ;:%S^|S 



(From "Leeper photographs," copyright, 1902.) 
Kurn Hattin,'or the Horns of Hattin. 
The traditional place of the choosing of the Twelve and the Sermon on the Mount. 



ways think alike seems to be shown by the fact that He 
called both Matthew and Simon the Zealot — the one a 
tax gatherer and the other a hater of taxes. 

The choice of Judas Iscariot has always been a mystery. 
It seems incredible that Jesus would have deliberately 
selected a thief and a traitor. We are rather led to sup- 
pose that He chose as His only disciple from Judea a man 
of undecided possibilities of good and of evil, who, even 
in the light of Jesus' presence and confidence, chose the 
darkness and at length betrayed Him. 

It is not necessary to suppose that all of the Twelve 
immediately and at the same time gave up their daily 
vocations. Probably the first thing Jesus asked of each 
of these men as a friend was some trifling deed of ser- 







■£*it¥$&€: 



opyr-ght by Underwood & Underwood. 

LIFE ON THE SHORE OF GALILEE, AT TIBERIAS, PALESTINE. 



THE TWELVE WERE NOT WRITERS 73 

vice. We find Him on one occasion borrowing Peter's 
boat, and on another sending some of the disciples after 
the boat, and again asking two of His friends to go on 
an errand. In the story of the dinner by the lake we 
get the impression that they looked after the stock of 
food, and we know that Judas was the treasurer of their 
small hoard of money. 

Very pleasant pictures come to us of the first days of 
Jesus' new-found friends with their leader. Whether 
or not they knew it, it was His intention that they should 
go to school to Him. They were to be with Him until 
they caught His spirit, and understood and could inter- 
pret to others His message. We see them, therefore, 
seated with the congregation in the synagogue at Caper- 
naum, walking again some Sabbath afternoon in the 
corn-fields, ushering the crowd which gathered on the 
hillside or at the crossroads, and hovering about Him as 
He performed His deeds of mercy. 

We have been in the habit of thinking of the Twelve 
as chosen by Jesus partly for the sake of handing down to 
men who should follow a knowledge of the life and teach- 
ings of Jesus. Strange to say, it is only indirectly that 
we obtain what we know about Jesus from the Twelve. 
It is not certain that we have any book from the pen of 
any of the Apostles, although they may have influenced 
the writing of each of the four Gospels. It will be inter- 
esting to learn at this point just who took the place of 
the disciples in conveying the life of Jesus to those who 
have lived since His day. 

When the early church came into being, a group of 
men gathered within it who were equally as able and 
serviceful as most of the Twelve. Among them was 
Stephen, the first Christian martyr, the great-hearted 
Barnabas, James, the brother of Jesus, who became the 
head of all the Jerusalem Christians, and Paul, the great- 
est personality, no doubt, that the Christian church has 
ever known. Of these we have writings only from Paul. 
Apparently none of these attempted to write a life of Jesus. 



74 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

The written accounts of Jesus' life seem to have come 
into being as follows: First the disciples and friends of 
Jesus gave their reminiscences orally. As they grew old 
and some died, the early Christians began to crave per- 
manent records of their great Master. Brief accounts of 
His deeds and teachings probably began to be written 
within twenty years of His death. These early writers, 
however, were not so much interested in the details of 
Jesus' career as a whole, as in the story of His death 
and resurrection. They were intensely interested in 
this story because on it were based the two beliefs which 
they held most precious, that "Christ died for our sins," 
and "Was raised for our justification." 

So it came to pass that, during the only years when 
any one was capable of writing a biography of Jesus 
which should tell in fulness and order of both His private 
and public life, the Christian world desired rather books 
that should be arguments for the special truths that were 
of comfort to themselves. Accordingly many of the 
things we are most anxious to know can never be told 
us. 

The first mention of Jesus in the world's literature is 
in the letters of Paul, and while he gives a vivid account 
of the Lord's Supper, he does not mention a single fact 
regarding Jesus which is not told us in the Gospels. 

Not much more than thirty-five years after the death 
of Jesus a book was written which we call "The Gospel 
according to Mark," the earliest and most valuable book 
about Jesus in the world's possession. Mark became, as 
we know, a companion of Peter, but he probably had 
never seen Jesus more than two or three times, and then 
during the last week of His life. This is on the supposition 
that he was the young man whose mother owned the 
house in which was the upper room where Jesus kept 
the Passover with His friends. 

The books which now bear the names of "Matthew" 
and "Luke" were evidently put together by men who 
were familiar with the writings of Mark. They both also 



THE FOUR GOSPELS 



75 



used other exceedingly valuable writings, now lost, which 
seem to have consisted chiefly of selections from Jesus' 
teachings, with a few additional facts about His life. 
An early Christian writer states that the Apostle Matthew 
made such a collection of Jesus' teachings. These are 
probably quoted in our present Gospels of Matthew and 
Luke. The writers or compilers of these two books 
apparently were not personally acquainted with Jesus. 
The Gospel which bears the 
name and influence of "John" 
was written at least thirty 
years after Mark and its 
writer evidently had access to 
all the other three. None of 
the four was endeavoring to 
write a biography, in our 
modern sense of the word. 

The Gospel according to 
Mark, which probably repre- 
sents much of the influence 
of Peter, describes a heroic 
reformer by giving eight dra- 
matic scenes from His life. 
The Gospel according to 
Matthew is what is called in 

college a "thesis," a book written to prove that Jesus 
was the great Deliverer whom the Jews were expecting 
and also the Deliverer of all who will follow Him. The 
book which bears the name of "Luke" was probably 
by the physician companion of Paul. Though written 
by one who had not seen Jesus, it is a painstaking effort 
to tell a cultured friend about this gracious Representative 
from the Father. 

The remarkable book which bears the name of "John" 
is not a biography at all, but is a sermon upon the Incar- 
nation, illustrated by a group of seven selected miracles 
and an account of the Passion, and containing an inter- 
pretation of Jesus' teachings. The book was probably 




(Copyright, 1896, by J. J. Tissot.) 
Mark. 



76 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

written by a devout Christian philosopher, near the end 
of the first century. Many scholars accept the tradition 
that this philosopher was none other than the Apostle 
John, who lived to a great age at Ephesus, which was a 
centre of Greek philosophy. - 

Interesting though exact personal knowledge about 
Jesus would be, we do not need it in order to under- 
stand His spirit and to be His followers. It is still possi- 
ble to reach behind the records which were made for a 
special need of second century Christians to the universal 
truths which Jesus taught and to the meaning of the 
life which Jesus lived. 

No books could possibly be of greater value than the 
four Gospels. It is true that the writers were more inter- 
ested in Jesus' death and resurrection than in His life. 
It is true that most of them, perhaps all, did not have 
a first-hand acquaintance with the person of Jesus. 
And of course they shared the limitations as to knowledge 
of science, of disease and of Jesus' deepest meaning com- 
mon to their time. But what a priceless heritage they 
present ! Sincerity shines in every line. No one can 
compare them without finding how each different view- 
point gives us a new angle from which to see the wonder- 
ful life. Even with their limitations, we can hardly 
see how otherwise we could have come to so adequate an 
impression of the One whom no books can contain. 

The greatest tribute to their worth is that each of them 
should have entirely obscured himself in order that he 
might throw the strongest light upon Him whom he was 
endeavoring to represent to the world. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE PHARISEES STUDYING JESUS 

Soon after Jesus begins to teach in Galilee we find that 
groups of Pharisees are coming frequently to study Him 
and His work. Who were these Pharisees ? 

You remember how the Old Testament closes with the 
ruin of the Jewish kingdom ? You know how the Jews 
became subject successively to the Babylonians, the 
Persians and the Greeks, and finally, in the time of 
Jesus, to Rome. But their patriotism was not dead, 
and they were not without leaders. When they could 
no longer govern themselves politically, this strange, 
serious people became a spiritual organization. What 
we would call the state became a church. What we 
would call their national constitution was enlarged to 
become a text-book of religious obligation, and in place 
of their prophets arose a race of schoolmasters. 

These schoolmasters, the intelligent patriots of the 
time, maintained among their countrymen a passionate 
and perpetual belief in one God. This belief was the one 
great gift which the Jewish exile gave to the world. The 
schoolmasters who taught it insisted upon the strict 
separation of every loyal Jew from any social or friendly 
relation to the idolatrous races which had conquered 
them. One of the names for this class whom we know 
as Pharisees means "The separated ones." 

The word "Pharisee" has come to have such an un- 
pleasant meaning that it is worth while for us to try to 
realize how noble were their purposes and how great 
were their claims to the nation's gratitude. You can 
realize this by thinking what a splendid contrast they 
made to the other strong parties of their time. They 

77 



78 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

differed from the Herodians, who had lost all their 
religious earnestness and were actually allying themselves 
with their conquerors. They were unlike the Zealots 
because they trusted God so earnestly that they would 
not appeal to force, and rather suffered patiently, await- 
ing His time. They differed from the Sadducees, who 
were a close corporation, largely of the priestly class. 
They spent their time in the synagogues in the school- 
ing of children and in teaching Judaism to the heathen. 
They made the hope of a Messiah the great dream of 
the nation, and they had so prepared the way for Jesus 
that He could take this glorified nationalism and graft 
upon it the kingdom of God. They, unlike the Sad- 
ducees, believed in immortality, and they trained the 
national will to the point where Jesus could lay hold 
upon it. 

And they had been successful. They had, as Jesus 
said, "sat down in the seat of Moses." Their Torah 
had become the accepted book of laws. Their scholars, 
"the Scribes of the Pharisees," as they were called, work- 
ing without pay and working everywhere, had put the 
whole nation to school. They had put their stamp on 
the Judaism which was current for the next two hundred 
years, not only in the Holy Land, but wherever the Jews 
were dispersed, and when the temple was destroyed, they 
stood silently in front of it as its last hopeless defenders. 

Jesus knew their worth better than do we. No doubt 
His own schoolmaster was one of these educated scribes. 
To one of them He said, "Thou art not far from the 
Kingdom of God." (Mark 12 : 34.) He acknowledged 
the value of the great truths and laws which they taught. 
But Jesus had outgrown them. Their faults had come 
almost to conceal their virtues. They had overlaid 
the simplicity of worship with ceremonials that were 
so burdensome that men were overwhelmed by them. 
The Sabbath, which had been originally designed as a 
joyous day of freedom and leisure, to commune with God 
and higher things, had become with its multiform and 



THE PHARISEES STUDYING JESUS 79 



unreasonable restrictions the hardest and most dreaded 
day of the whole week. It was itself really an object of 
worship. They had also become so pompous that they 
demanded unreasonable respect for themselves, and, as 
is often the case with formalists, some even kept up the 
most elaborate observances while their own lives were 
selfish and rotten. 

As soon as these Pharisees came into contact with Jesus 
they began to question many of His actions. Their 
questions and His answers do more to throw light upon 
the difference between 
His spirit and theirs than 
would a volume of ex- 
planations. One Sabbath 
they found Jesus with 
His disciples walking 
through a grain field, and 
the disciples were pulling 
off the heads of grain and 
eating it. This would 
seem to us an innocent 
act, entirely in harmony 
with the joyous, festal 
day, but according to 
their Torah it was a sin- 
ful deed, for two reasons. It was a kind of reaping and 
a kind of winnowing. Jesus' sensible answer to their com- 
plaint was this: "The Sabbath belongs to man, and not 
man to the Sabbath." It was made for man's sake; men 
were not made for the Sabbath's sake. 

Again they complained because He wrought deeds of 
healing on the Sabbath. Jesus told them in so many 
words that neglect to do kindness, even on that day, ap- 
peared to Him to be heathenish. 

They asked Him why He did not engage in the cere- 
monial fasts which the disciples of John the Baptist were 
in the habit of observing. Jesus' reply was: "Why 
should people fast when they are happy ? These are 




A Group of Pharisees. 

(Copyright, i8g6, by J. J. Tissot. Courtesy of the 
McClure Tissot Co.) 



80 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



honeymoon days. During such days do the friends of 
the bridegroom fast ?" Indeed, Jesus seems not only to 
have ignored the fasts, but in principle at least He showed 
that it was irrational to abstain from certain meats as 
being ceremonially unclean, even though these were 
prohibited by the Mosaic law. The Gospel according 
to Mark tells us, "He made all meats clean." 

Again they asked Him why He sat down at table with 
sinners. "To whom does a doctor go," asked Jesus, "to 

well people or to sick people ? " 
Many of the Pharisees were 
conscientious. They were not 
Jesus' enemies at the begin- 
ning, but it was impossible for 
them either to understand or 
to permit such infractions of 
what they believed to be the 
very constitution of their na- 
tion. They could see no safety 
to the nation unless it was kept 
close within the bounds of 
habit and custom. If the Jews 
should act like the people of 
other races, they argued that 
they would become like them 
in every way, and they would no longer be a separate race, 
knowing God and being blessed by Him. On the other 
hand, Jesus, as has been said, had outgrown them. He 
could not be patient with the attempt to make life a pro- 
gramme of petty details. "I am come that they might 
have life," He once said, "and that they might have it 
more abundantly." One who had entered, as Jesus had, 
into intimate and joyous fellowship with God, and who 
felt every day the abounding life of God in His own soul 
could not but burst, as the springtide bursts its barriers, 
these dull and petty constructions of theirs, and His full 
tidal life spread forth into all the shallows of other lives, 
helping the good seed to fertility wherever it went. 




Jesus by the Sea. 



CHAPTER XIII 



WHAT JESUS' TEACHING WAS LIKE 

Horace Bushnell once said that he would have given 
more for one glimpse of Cato jogging afield than for an 
entire book about him. Have you not often felt that 
if you could have seen and heard Jesus for fifteen minutes, 
it would have done more to make you realize what His 
teaching was like than all that 
you read in the Gospels ? Let us 
try to make His manner of teach- 
ing seem as real as possible. 

We have already seen that 
Jesus was not, in our. sense of 
the word, a preacher. While He 
went on the Sabbath into the 
synagogue and, when He was in- 
vited, explained the scriptures, 
it was more like a Bible-class 
teacher than like a clergyman. 
Week-days He sat upon the seat 
of a boat in the midst of fisher- 
men. The multitude crowded 
the rooms and courtyard of any 
home where He was entertained. 
He spoke to people in the vil- 
lage squares and at the cross- 
roads, and on at least one occasion thousands came to- 
gether upon a hill-slope near the lake and heard Him. 

The impression which Jesus gave these people was 
probably chiefly that of joyous surprise. The word 
"gospel" means good news. Wherever Jesus spoke, 
it was as one who had made a discovery which He wished 

81 




Path through the Fields. Il- 
lustrating the Wayside 
Hearer. 

(From "Leeper photographs," copy- 
right, 1902. Courtesy of Hammond 
Publishing Co., Milwaukee.) 



82 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

to share with everybody. You can see what an appeal 
this would make to curiosity, to the natural desire for 
joy and for possible benefit. The other teachers of Jesus' 
time never ventured upon anything new. They spent 
their time in prosy commentaries upon the olden laws, 
giving no explanations for their existence and no motives 
for obeying them. 

Not only were they dull, but it was an age of dul- 
ness. Nothing ever happened in Galilee. No new 
movement had started, and no outstanding man had 
appeared, since Judas the Galilean had started a rebel- 
lion over twenty years before. There were no newspapers. 
Into this dull time came this bright young carpenter, 
telling people something which to them was entirely 
new. 

Why has not some one called this wonderful teacher 
"Jesus, the Great"? Other men have been called 
"great, " who have led armies, captured cities or wrought 
in stone, canvas or literature, but the teaching of Jesus 
has been more dynamic than any of these and has trans- 
formed the thinking and doing of the world. 

We see the greatness of Jesus more clearly when we 
realize under what conditions He worked. The thought 
of Jesus was limited to the knowledge of His day as to 
nature and science. The men whom He addressed were 
nearly all at least able to read and write, but their only 
book was the Old Testament. The women were gen- 
erally illiterate. To such people the whole world of 
scholarship was closed, and Jesus could use only the 
elements of common human experience. 

Now notice how skilful were the methods of Jesus, 
thinking of them simply as intellectual devices; notice 
how perfectly well adapted they were to the people to 
whom He spoke. 

His chief method was that of stories. At first how 
imperfect, how childish, seems such a method, but re- 
member, it is the oldest means of knowledge. It is a 
universal means, appealing to all ages, bridging all Ian- 



JESUS' USE OF STORIES 



83 



guages, and understood by all races. You cannot trans- 
late a philosophy into the language of the savage, but 
you can tell the stories of Jesus to people of every race 
and creed. Stories are easily remembered and repeated. 
Woodrow Wilson, after twenty years of teaching, said 
that his students forgot his lectures, but remembered 
his illustrations. If Jesus wished to have His thought 
reproduced correctly He could not do so in any other 
way so well as by telling stories. People might mis- 
understand prosaic statements, but they would not for- 
get His stories. A story is 
the best interpretation of life. 
The best way to describe a 
man or an idea is not to write 
an essay about it, but to il- 
lustrate it by a story. 

Notice the topics of Jesus' 
stories. They were about 
things near at hand. When 
He was out of doors in the 
springtime, He told spring- 
time stories about outdoor life. 
Over four hundred references 
to nature have been found 
in the Gospels. On other oc- 
casions He used illustrations 

:rom His own trade, that of a carpenter. He mentioned 
the homely tasks of the housewife, and the games which 
the children were playing. He was fond of telling stories 
about the home life, using the father of the family as an 
illustration. He talked about the events of the day. A 
tower had fallen down and killed a few men, and Jesus 
referred to it. A patriot had started an insurrection, 
and Jesus mentioned that. Some years before, one of 
the Herods had gone to Rome to get a crown and had been 
refused, and Jesus told a story based upon his disappoint- 
ment. His topics were general, that is, He talked about 
common things. He selected also fascinating topics 




The Sower. 



84 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

for stories. He told about feasts and weddings, and 
since everybody likes to hear about kings, He told about 
kings and their courts. 

Jesus used another method which was even more 
graphic. He not only told stories, but He acted them 
out. He called a child to Him and taking him in His 
arms He made the life of the child His text. When He 
was helping sick people He seems to have connected His 
stories and His deeds, much as a medical missionary 
to-day does while he is busy in his dispensary or hospital. 

Another method was the proverb. The difference 
between a proverb and any other statement of truth is 
the difference between a parcel with and without a handle. 
The proverb is the handle by which memory carries away 
a truth. People could not forget the proverbs of Jesus 
because sometimes they stated a startling contrast. 
Again they were cast in the form of poetry, and others, 
like the Beatitudes, would not be forgotten because each 
sentence began with the same phrase. Some of the most 
memorable of the proverbs of Jesus are these: 

"Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its flavor, wherewith 
shall it be salted again ?" 

"Whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you 
even so unto them." 

"If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be light; But 
if your eye is diseased your whole body will be darkened. 
Watch, then, lest the light that is in you be darkness." 

"It is better to go into life with one eye than to have two 
eyes and be cast into Gehenna." 

"A sound tree cannot bear rotten fruit, nor a rotten tree 
sound fruit." 

One of the most effective rhetorical devices which men 
can use is humor. The evangelists were serious-minded 
people, and probably thought humor beneath the dignity 
of Jesus. They have left us, however, a number of illus- 
trations of the humor of Jesus. You remember how one 
day Jesus was talking about intolerance. He told His 






THE HUMOR OF JESUS 85 

listeners that any one unwilling to make allowances for 
the faults of another was as if one carpenter should ask 
his comrade to let him remove a splinter from his eye, 
when he himself had had a timber driven into his own. 
Speaking of the difficulty which rich men have to handle 
their wealth, and at the same time be kind and generous, 
He pictured a camel loaded with a great bundle, trying 
to squeeze through the eye of a needle. Ridiculing the 
punctilious Pharisees, He said they would strain at a 
gnat and then swallow a camel. He made light of the 
readiness with which people followed the most foolish 
and burdensome requirements of the Pharisees, by saying 
that it reminded Him of blind men trying to lead blind 
men. His words suggest a number of blind men putting 
their hands upon each other's shoulders and forming a 
line behind another blind man, who, leading them along 
a winding lane in the meadow, topples them all off into 
the muddy ditch at the side. Humor flashes a sudden 
light upon a dark subject. It is much more effective 
than wit. A witty remark causes a laugh, but may 
hurt the feelings of a listener. Humor causes the hearer 
to take sides with the speaker. 

There were other ways by which Jesus got His audience 
to take sides with Him, what President Tucker calls 
"Getting one's audience to preach with him." 

Jesus appealed to knowledge. It flatters a hearer to 
be reminded that he knows something. He seems then 
to say to the speaker, "We start together at least." 
Thus the speaker builds upon what his hearers know, 
and upon that upon which they all agree. From that 
mutual standpoint it is not hard to broach something 
upon which they may not agree with him; so Jesus 
would say, "You have read, but ..." 

Jesus appealed to experience. * This also arouses 
sympathy. We like to think back to what we have felt. 
Jesus was fond of saying, "What think ye?" "What 
man of you ? ' ' One universal experience that Jesus 
used most often was that of the "family," for the Jew 



86 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

was typically a family man, and the nation was the great- 
est topic of the day. 

Then Jesus appealed to curiosity. His stories usually 
had a meaning that needed to be guessed or would 
naturally be discussed. He was always suggesting that 
there was something further to come. He urged them 
to "Learn of me." Once He told His listeners that He 
was going to reveal "what is known only to the initiated." 

Jesus appealed to feeling. This is another way to 
get listeners to take sides. In all of Jesus' stories you 
find yourself taking just the side He wishes you to take. 
In the story of the prodigal you take sides three times, — 
first, in sympathy with the good father; second, in pity 
for the prodigal son ; and third, in contempt for the un- 
loving brother. In the story of the good Samaritan one 
takes sides four times, — first, in sympathy with the man 
who was robbed ; second, in impatience against the priest ; 
third, in contempt against the Levite; and fourth, in 
admiration for the good Samaritan. 

Jesus appealed to reason. When He did this He would 
probably wait for a response. When He told men that 
anger was as evil as murder, that secret prayer was 
nobler than street praying, and that the Sabbath was 
made for man and not man for the Sabbath, He knew it 
would take time for men to think out these statements 
and learn to agree with Him. 

Finally Jesus appealed to action. He was always seem- 
ing to say, "Try this." He used the laboratory method. 
"Follow me." "Do and you will know." The Pharisee 
said "Wait for the kingdom"; Jesus said "Join it." 

By all these appeals Jesus, the wonderful Teacher, 
touches the whole man, 



CHAPTER XIV 
JESUS' MESSAGE TO HIS NEIGHBORS 



We can best understand what was Jesus' message to 
His neighbors if we realize just who His neighbors were. 
When He sat upon the stern of a boat and talked to a 
Capernaum gathering He looked into the faces of peo- 
ple, most of whom were discouraged, many of whom were 
burdened, some of whom were 
sick. The most religious of 
them were living dull and 
dreary lives in the endeavor 
to conform to the Pharisaic 
customs, and many others had 
given up the task and were 
sinners and outcasts. All of 
them, Jesus saw, were misus- 
ing life. Each of them was, as 
He Himself said, "Losing or 
forfeiting his own self." Jesus' 
one topic, therefore, was: 
"How to live." 

Can we, after all these many 
centuries, and with our knowl- 
edge of His words since our 
childhood, make His teaching seem fresh ? Or is it only 
to great sinners, to those deeply ignorant or in bitterest 
need, that what Jesus taught comes with freshness? If 
we cannot make it seem fresh we can at least make it 
seem true. And "Truth," as Phillips Brooks has said, 
is never trite." Jesus taught little that was wholly 
new. He took old ideas and believed them, He related 
them one to another, and He lived them. 

87 




(Copyright, 1896, by J. J. Tissot.) 

Preaching the Sermon on the 
Mount. 



88 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

The three teachings on which Jesus laid most stress, in 
talking to His neighbors, were as follows : 

The first was this: We must trust in the Heavenly 
Father. This sounds old and simple. But have men 
done it ? 

In Jesus' time the thought of God as Father was not a 
new one. Modern Jews are fond of calling attention to 
the fact that every phrase in the Lord's Prayer was 
found in the old prayers of their race. This may be true. 
They had heard that God was their Father, but few acted 
as if this were so. No one could have prayed the Lord's 
Prayer until Jesus taught its meaning. If the Jews 
thought of God as Father, it was as a national King. 
What they meant was this: He was the Father of the 
chosen race, and therefore He owed them success. He 
was a patron, rather than a parent. The result was 
that they turned to Him with a frightened clinging, a 
dreary waiting or a pompous formalism. How little did 
they appreciate that beautiful phrase in one of their 
own psalms, "They looked unto him, and their faces 
were lightened." Not as a child's face brightens at his 
father's coming did their faces grow radiant at the 
thought of God. 

Let us see what Jesus taught. He looked around and 
pointed to the natural sights on every side, and spoke 
somewhat like this: "It is our Father who has made 
the birds of the air, the flowers of the field, the food which 
we enjoy. He made the hearts of earthly fathers, who 
give gladly to their children, who wake in the night to 
comfort them, who carry them when they are little, who 
catch them when they stumble, and who recover them after 
they are lost. Our Father is here now. He is a listening 
Father. He hears us when we speak softly and in secret, 
even in our sin and our helpless longings. He is not a 
Father who is a mere King. Our King is our Father." 

Jesus did not attempt to explain pain and bereavement 
and evil. He took the facts of life as they are, but He 
taught that God's power is as great as His love. That 



SONSHIP 89 

power is wielded by a will. That mighty will is for us, 
not against us. "It is not the will of your Father that 
one of his little ones should perish." 'Our Father is 
a militant God. He fights for us against diseases and 
misery. He fights in us against loneliness and sin. We 
are priceless to God.' 

When Jesus said these things he was not speaking 
indefinitely. He did not think of men in general. He 
thought of Peter the impetuous; the woman who was a 
sinner; the sick who lay upon the strand about him, he 
thought even of Judas. 

Another thing which Jesus taught His neighbors is 
this: We must live as God's children. This too is sim- 
ple and old, but the Jews were living, not as children, 
but as slaves or as courtiers of God. They hoped that 
sometime, somewhere, they might enter into their heri- 
tage. But to Jesus sonship of God was not so distant a 
thing as that. By living as God's children, Jesus meant 
simply: being like God, imitating God. God loves even 
evil-doers; let us treat kindly those who wrong us. God 
fights against disease and sin; let us fight against dis- 
ease and sin (Matt. 12 : 28). God is a peacemaker; 
let us make harmony in His world. God is uniting His 
children into a world brotherhood; let us live lovingly 
and generously as a part of His brotherhood. 

Jesus told His hearers that they could live as God's 
children now and here. The most important thing was 
not that they should regain their political independence 
or have money and luxuries. Jesus wondered, as did 
our modern prophet, John Ruskin, "not so much at what 
men suffer, as at what they lose." What about the 
self ? Was each man keeping or losing that ? Our 
greatest English poet has put the question of Jesus in a 
most earnest way: 

"Poor soul, the centre of this sinful earth, 

Vexed by these rebel powers that thee array, 
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth, 
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?" 



90 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

So the third point which Jesus made in His early teach- 
ing was as to the necessity of whole-heartedness in claim- 
ing their divine sonship. "Let us throw our whole 
soul into this business of living as God's children; let 
us not permit minor things to obscure our vision of 
life's supreme goal." "Ye cannot serve God and mam- 
mon." "He that putteth his hand to the plough and 
looketh back is not fit for the kingdom of heaven." 
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God" — not only — "with 
all thy heart" — but also — "with all thy strength." 

Again as Jesus speaks He sees Peter giving only his 
half -best to his occupation as a fisherman, the sinful 
woman wasting the beautiful gifts of life, Judas asking 
of life only what it shall profit him in money-making. 
He sees what will happen if each of them gives his whole 
strength to a life as God's child. The fisherman will be 
not a hireling but a craftsman; the mother will be not a 
nurse, but an artist in life; the master will not be a 
slave-driver, but will be responsible for his brother 
workman; the man who has riches will be earnest in 
making them an expression of his sonship and brother- 
hood. 

The one inquiry of Jesus was: "What are you doing 
with the gift of life?" 

His own answer was "to trust God and to live as God's 
children." 

One of the best summaries of what this kind of a life 
would mean is given in what we call the Beatitudes. 
We have them in their simplest form in the Gospel 
according to Luke, but in their best interpretation in the 
Gospel according to Matthew. They may be put in 
modern English as follows : 

Happy are they who feel the need of God's help, for it is 
they who belong to the kingdom of heaven; 

Happy are they who are hungry and thirsty for real good- 
ness, for it is they who will be made happy; 

Happy are they who are dissatisfied with themselves, for 
it is they who will become like God; 






THE BEATITUDES 91 

Happy are they who become hated and persecuted for these 
things, for heaven remembers such, and in this way the ancient 
prophets became sainted. 

i 

Is it really possible for men to act all the time as if 
they were sons of God ? We might not think so, if some 
men had not disproved our doubt by really living in their 
divine sonship. Jesus was the first to do so. When He 
was telling His neighbors how to live this life, He was 
really painting His own portrait. The Beatitudes are 
Jesus' autobiography. The best that we know about 
Jesus is not the words that He spoke, but the life that 
He lived. We revere and follow Him to-day because 
He Himself believed that He was a Son of God, and lived 
the life of sonship so constantly. Multitudes since then 
because of His teaching and life have endeavored to do 
so. You yourselves have fathers and mothers and friends 
who are doing so to-day. We shall see in the next chap- 
ter how this kind of life is the foundation of the kingdom 
of heaven. Already we can realize that it is 'the way by 
which one makes the most of his own life. Jesus would 
build His kingdom of brotherhood out of men who were 
first true sons to the Father. 






CHAPTER XV 
JESUS' PROCLAMATION OF THE KINGDOM 

Nowhere in His teachings does Jesus give a definition 
of the Kingdom of God. This was not necessary. His 
hearers knew perfectly well what the words meant. 
Long before Jesus came, the ancient prophets, heart- 
sick because of the wrong-doing and misery with which 
the world was cursed, had dreamed of a time when all 
these evils should be done away. In that future golden 
age, all nations should learn the principles of justice which 
had been taught to Israel by Jehovah. As a result, all 
injustice would cease among men. Even war, the great- 
est of all evils which have afflicted the human race, would 
be utterly abolished. Men would "beat their swords 
into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks ; 
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall 
they learn war any more." (Is. 2:4.) In the prophecy 
of Daniel, this glorious future age is described as the 
triumph of the Kingdom of God. King Nebuchadrezzar 
had dreamed of a great image, made of gold, silver, and 
various other materials. And in his dream, "a stone 
was cut out without hands, which smote the image," 
and broke it in pieces. "And the stone which smote 
the image became a great mountain and filled the whole 
earth." According to Daniel's interpretation, this dream 
represented the final triumph of God's rule, or God's 
Kingdom, over the entire human race. These glowing 
hopes were earnestly cherished by the Jewish people 
in the time of Jesus. Many of the people, however, were 
selfish in their hopes. They believed that God would 
rule the world through Israel. Their hearts were set on 
the glory of being rulers, rather than on that abolition 

92 



THE KINGDOM IDEA 93 

of injustice, to which the prophets had looked forward. 
John the Baptist had caught the ear of the nation by be- 
ginning his teaching with the startling announcement, 
"The Kingdom of Heaven is just at hand." Yet he 
demolished their self-confidence and pride of descent 
by telling them that if God wanted children of Abraham, 
in order to set up His Kingdom, He could turn the peb- 
bles of the Jordan valley into children of Abraham by the 
millions. He made it perfectly clear that the way for the 
nation to prepare for the era of their Messiah- King, and 
to escape His wrath, was not to depend upon the sup- 
posed prerogatives of their Israelitish blood, but to begin 
a brotherly life, and equalize their social inequalities. 

These were the ideas which were current in men's 
minds when Jesus came. And the best and noblest of 
them Jesus accepted with all His heart. With all His 
heart He believed in the future ideal of a new order of 
society, in which the sovereign Father would rule the 
life and conduct of all; thus ancient injustice would be 
corrected, and ministration to the hungry, the poor, the 
sick, and evil-doers would be the employment of the 
sons of the Kingdom, until such ministrations should 
never more be needed. 

This vision of the new era, indeed, was not entirely 
new with Jesus. His originality, however, is shown in 
His explanation of how and when it was to be brought 
into being. He differed from His neighbors on two vital 
points. They believed that the Kingdom was to be 
established by force and bloodshed. Jesus believed that 
God rules chiefly through moral influence. This idea He 
brought out in such parables as that of the forgiving 
king. "The Kingdom of heaven (that is the rule of 
heaven or God) is like a king who wished to make a 
reckoning with his servants. . . . And one debtor was 
brought before him who owed ten thousand talents. . . . 
So that servant fell down before him and did homage to 
him, saying, Be patient with me, and I will pay thee all. 
And the master of that servant pitied him and released 



94 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



him, and forgave him the debt." (Matt. 18: 23-27.) In 
other words, the rule of our heavenly King is a merciful 
rule. He treats evil-doers kindly, and seeks in this way 
to win them to a better life. As we saw in an earlier 
chapter, Jesus taught that "God is a King who is a 
Father." His Kingdom is a kingdom of love; and love 
is the greatest force in the world. Armies and battleships 
can break down walls; but only love can soften hard 
hearts. And it is this force on which the sovereign 

Father relies, to accomplish 
His righteous purposes among 
men. 

In the second place, Jesus 
differed from His neighbors 
as to when the Kingdom was 
to appear. They believed 
that this present world was 
hopelessly bad, and that the 
new era could only be ushered 
in by a sudden catastrophe, 
which they pictured to them- 
selves as a great Judgment 
Day. Jesus perhaps agreed 
that the final and complete 
triumph of God's rule would 
only come after this Day of Judgment. But He also be- 
lieved that the Kingdom was beginning to triumph, al- 
ready. "If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons," 
He said, "then is the Kingdom of God come upon you." 
The best way for us to-day to understand just how 
and when the Kingdom of God was to appear, according 
to Jesus' thought, is to turn to that very early parable 
which Jesus spoke, of which the Gospels take great pains 
to give an explanation. This is the parable of the sower. 
Very likely as Jesus spoke these words a farmer might 
have been seen working his field in the early springtime, 
scattering the grain in the freshly prepared soil, in the 
confident hope of harvest. 




The Sower. 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD 



95 



We may put the thought of Jesus, as expressed in this 
story, in language something like this : The thought that 
God has a right to rule human life has been sown broad- 
cast among men like good seed. When this thought falls 
into the life of a man who has no room for it, because his 
heart is utterly hard and selfish, it never appears above 




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111 


yfmM'/ 


lPi!l 




a\L> 




+-*CTP|j ( jJi1l 


**cn 




The Wayside. Stony Ground. Thorny Ground. Good Ground. 

The Four Kinds of Soil in the Parable of the Sower. 



the surface. When it falls into the lives of those who 
are too superficial to take it into the real depths of their 
hearts, it springs up too soon, and then withers away. 
When it falls into lives that are full of other things, it 
simply becomes smothered. When it is taken into 
thoughtful minds and sincere hearts, it grows and bears 
fruit. So, slowly and with many discouragements and 
failures, the Kingdom grows according to the varying 
responses of men. 

The same teaching appears in the parable of the seed 
growing of itself, which only Mark has preserved for us. 

So is the Kingdom of God," Jesus says, "as if a man 
should cast seed on the earth. . . . The earth beareth 



96 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



fruit of herself, first the green shoot, then the ear, then 
the ripened grain in the ear. ' ' (Mark 4 : 2 6-2 8 . ) In other 
words, God's rule triumphs gradually as the result of the 
growth of new and righteous purposes in men's hearts. 

Jesus was right. When men do receive into their lives 
the thought that God deserves their loyal obedience, they 
arouse and claim their sonship. But it takes a long time 
to get this thought to sprout. Jesus once hoped that all 
the people in Galilee would see this truth and receive it, 

but the time came when they 
disappointed Him, and He 
had to turn to His few dis- 
ciples and spend the rest of 
His life in helping them to 
believe thoroughly in their 
sonship to God. A foreign 
missionary to-day often 
spends years in persuading 
his ignorant and hard-hearted 
hearers of the love and good- 
ness of God, and the privi- 
leges of sonship. Nevertheless, 
"the seed of the Kingdom" is 
good seed, and possesses re- 
markable vitality. In spite of 
difficulties it takes root in this individual and that. And 
then the process of growth spreads out beyond individ- 
uals, and, like yeast in a mass of dough (see Matt. 13 : 33), 
begins to revolutionize human society. Jesus was not a 
revolutionist, in the sense that He ever consented to lead 
a bloody revolution. But He was a revolutionist, in the 
sense that He sowed the idea of the triumph of God's 
Kingdom in the hearts of men, and this idea has ever 
since then been transforming the world. 

The controlling purpose of our lives, according to 
Jesus, should be loyalty to God's Kingdom. "Seek ye 
first His kingdom." "When ye pray, say, Our Father . . . 
Thy Kingdom come." The force of these sayings of 




The Leaven. 



SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE KINGDOM 97 

Jesus is not always fully appreciated. Some men are 
selfish even in their religion. They seem to think of 
religion merely as a kind of passport whereby they them- 
selves by and by can be sure of entrance into heaven. 
But by "seeking first God's Kingdom," Jesus meant 
something nobler than that. He meant that we should 
first of all submit our own lives to God's rule; and not 
only that, but we should then do all in our power to help 
on the triumph of that rule among all our fellow men. 
We should seek to make the city in which we live a ' ' city 
of God," and our nation a nation "whose God is Jehovah." 
When one really catches the Kingdom idea of Jesus, one 
realizes the importance of many things that hitherto 
may have seemed trivial. If each duty and relation of 
ours is a Kingdom-duty and a Kingdom-relation, then, 
as Phillips Brooks has told us, we shall no longer "reduce 
life to the pettiness of our daily living; we shall exalt 
our daily living to the grandeur of life." 

What a vision was this which Jesus held up before 
men ! Its spirit came from Him ; He was the first to 
inspire men with the unquenchable hope that such an 
ideal is possible, and ever since His time this glowing 
ideal which He gave to the world has been the noblest 
inspiration of men. Jesus believed not only that this 
Kingdom is to be a triumphant power in the world. He 
also thought of it as extending into the life beyond death, 
and including the immortal life of men with God. Here 
was a very great service, in that He not only made im- 
mortality seem sure, but He made it seem worth while. 

His faith in the Kingdom is seen in the fact that He 
lived its life. This is the supreme fact about Jesus' 
proclamation. He lived what He proclaimed. He gave 
His own life to the rule of God. He lived as a brother to 
men. He wrought for the future. Some particular acts 
of His were noticeable expressions of this spirit. His 
refusal to pay deference to men of money, His fondness 
for the poor, His indifference whether His new-found 
brothers were Jews or Gentiles, His final processional 



98 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

into the capital, surrounded by the populace, His insist- 
ence, when on trial, that His mission was to establish a 
Kingdom, fidelity to which meant death at the hands of 
those who opposed it — these were the guarantees that 
He gave that He believed what He taught. 



CHAPTER XVI 



A NIGHT AND DAY OF PERIL 



The life of Jesus at Capernaum was not without 
adventure. One afternoon, finding that the interested 
multitude would not give Him time even to sleep, He 
started to cross the lake of Galilee in a boat. In the 
gathering darkness He slipped away with His nearest 
friends from the city strand. 
The waters and the surround- 
ing hills were peaceful. There 
was a fine sunset, with per- 
haps a hint of storm on the 
horizon. Jesus dropped asleep 
on the square boat-seat in the 
stern, and the fisher-boat, wafted 
by the rising breeze, sprang 
swiftly forward, with the friends 
of Jesus on watch. Suddenly 
with the night the tempest fell. 
The fishermen leaped to furl 
the sail, and then bent to the 
heavy oars in an endeavor to 
keep the boat before the wind. 

The Orientals are an excit- 
able people. Blithe in joy, they 
are like children in a panic, 
and it was not long before the nearest shook Jesus wildly 
by the shoulder, and spoke the terror of all, when he 
snouted through the storm, 

"Awake ! We are sinking !" 

Jesus leaped to His feet. Is there any greater trial 
of a man's courage than to wake him from sleep, face to 
face with death? This supreme test of manliness Jesus 

99 




Sea of Galilee and Sur- 
roundings. 



100 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



met. He was not afraid ! Later the disciples thought 
that His lack of fear was because He had magic power 
to stop the storm and knew that He was in no real danger. 
We perhaps can judge His attitude more justly, when 
we recall what Jesus said. His quiet question of His 
friends was, "Why are you afraid ?" 
Why was He Himself not afraid ? 
Is not the answer, that He actually believed what He 

had taught about the Father ? 
The storm was a real peril, 
but Jesus, even in peril, could 
brave it, because, as one of 
our own poets has said: 

"Well roars the storm to those 

who hear 

A deeper Voice across the 

storm." 

If I am alone in the storm I 
must be frightened, as the 
disciples were, but if my God 
and Father is in the storm 
This was what Jesus was 




Jesus Asleep in the Storm. 



with me, I can be brave, 
thinking. 

When they drew to land on the Eastern shore there 
came down from the cave-tomb to the strand to meet 
them a giant madman. He was foul and naked, and 
upon his mighty arms and legs were broken pieces of the 
chains with which men in vain had tried to hold him. Here 
he lived in the rocks, shouting and yelling and gashing 
his body in his periods of rage with the sharp flint, and 
no one now ever dared come near him. The fishermen 
quailed before this fiend as he loomed over them in 
the moonlight at the landing. 

But Jesus stepped quietly out and faced him. Would 
not the wild man tear Him to pieces ? No ! At a quiet 
word from Jesus he fell humbly at His knees and em- 
braced them, crying out in a piteous voice: "What 



THE GIANT MADMAN 



101 



I adjure you to 
simple shepherds of the 




The Gerasene Demoniac. 



is there between thee and me, Jesus ? 

torment me not." 

An hour later some of the 

region ventured around the 

shadowed crags, and there 

they saw Jesus seated beside 

the lunatic, who was now 

clothed and in sound mind. 

They were so superstitious 

that they were alarmed at 

the power Jesus had shown 

over this mighty man, and 

they made signs at Him, en- 
treating Him to leave their 

country. Jesus went toward 

His boat to depart. The giant 

followed, still talking rever- 
ently with Him, and when 

he understood that Jesus was 

now going away, he begged eagerly, ' ' Let me go with you, 

Jesus. Let me also be one of those who follow after you." 
For the first time and apparently the only time in His 

life, Jesus encouraged a 
man to tell of the wonder 
which had been wrought 
in his own life. 

1 ' Go back to your own 
home," said Jesus gently. 
"Go back to your old 
friends and tell them 
what great things God 
has done for you. ' ' Here 
again we can study the 
attitude of Jesus. Not 
only did He, who be- 
lieved that His Father 

was with Him everywhere, not quail at the madman, but 

He exerted His power, with the Father's help, to quell the 




The Hill near Gerasa. 

(Copyright, 1898, by A. J. Holman & Co 
delphia.) 



Phila- 



102 



THE LIFE OP JESUS 



turmoil in the madman's mind, and bring him back to 
self-control. 

Jesus may have rested here in the solitudes a little 
while. Soon after, however, on His return, occurred one 
of the most touching incidents of which we have mention 
in the life of Jesus. No sooner had He reached the beach 
at Capernaum than the usual crowd gathered about Him. 
While He was still by the shore the president of the 
synagogue came down and fell impulsively at His feet, 

sobbing with grief. ' ' O Mas- 
ter!" he cried. "My little 
daughter is at the point of 
death, but come, place your 
hands upon her and you can 
bring her back to life." 

Jesus moved rapidly up 
the beach toward the city, 
with the distracted father, fol- 
lowed by the multitude who 
thronged Him on every side. 
The enthusiastic faith of many 
in Jesus was so great at this 
time that they believed even 
the touch of His body or of His garments would bring 
renewed strength. This very morning a woman who 
was ill felt her way to Him in the crowd, and pulled 
at the corner of His cloak and pressed her lips to the 
fluttering fringe. Secretly, so as not to expose Him to 
ceremonial uncleanness, she touched His garments. 
There is a touch of pathetic humor in the statement in 
the Gospels that "she had suffered much from many 
physicians." When we recall that some of the favorite 
remedies of the crude medical science of that time were 
the heads of mice, the eyes of crabs, owl's brains, boiled 
snails, and scorpions boiled in wine, we can understand 
what her mental as well as physical torments might have 
been. Jesus turned gently to see who it was, and called 
her forth from the crowd. He may have done this 




Touching Jesus' Garment. 



A NEIGHBOR'S LITTLE GIRL 



103 



to help her to a courage which should cast out fear, while 
He spoke to her a message of the Father which should 
use that very courage to help her recovery. * At any rate, 
her tremulous mind was calmed, she raised herself with 
a thankful smile, and went away, asserting that she was 
thoroughly well. 

In all these instances in which Jesus showed in practical 
life how trust in the heavenly Father helps toward poise 
and peace and health, He 
accompanied his acts by 
words of faith: "Peace! Be 
still. " " Thy faith hath made 
thee whole." "Fear not, 
only believe." In both these 
instances of restoration to 
health one cannot but be 
impressed with the similarity 
of Jesus' method to those 
which are so commonly and 
successfully used to-day, in 
certain kinds of nervous and 
mental malady and unrest, 
in which encouragement to 
quiet Christian trust becomes 
the strongest possible aid to the other methods of the 
physician and the recovery of the patient. 

In the meantime a rumor had come from the house of 
the president of the synagogue that the little girl was 
already dead. "Be of good cheer," whispered Jesus, 
with His hand in that of His friend. "Only have faith." 

Jesus hastened on, and at the door of the home He 
asked His friends to drive back the crowd. Coming 
into the silent chamber where the little girl, a child of 
twelve years of age, was lying cold and still, Jesus seems 
to have suggested that she was not dead but in a state 
of coma. First, He reassured the distracted parents: 
"Fear not, only believe." Then He put out the noisy 
crowd of mourners. With a friend or two and the father 



1 


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Jairus' Daughter. 



104 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

and mother He stepped to the bedside. There was prob- 
ably a word of prayer, for His own sake that He might 
do the Father's work, for the parents that they might be 
trustful and comforted, since even death is not disaster 
but only one of the Father's ways of bringing our loved 
ones to Himself. Then going up to the child He took her 
by the hand, and in a strong, firm voice, as if He were 
calling her from her night sleep, He said: "My little girl, 
I am speaking to you. It is time for you to get up." 
The little girl slowly opened her eyes, and lifted by the 
arm of Jesus she slowly sat up and Jesus gave her to the 
embraces of her enraptured father and mother. He 
quietly insisted that they should not allow the news to 
get spread abroad, and in a sensible manner asked that 
she should be given her breakfast. 



CHAPTER XVII 



BACK TO HIS OLD HOME 



It seems to have been a number of months after Jesus 
transferred His family from Nazareth to Capernaum, be- 
fore He went back to His old home again. He probably- 
hoped that the influence of His message would be greater 
after His old neighbors had 
learned of His reputation from 
outside. 

One Sabbath He appeared 
in the synagogue where as a 
young man He had often lis- 
tened to the reading and ex- 
planation of the scriptures. 
After the service of praise and 
prayer was over Jesus was 
asked to read and explain the 
scripture for the day. 

It is not difficult to imagine 
the animated scene. The sim- 
ple white building was, no 
doubt, crowded with villagers. 
The men sat in the body of the 
house upon the floor, and as many women as could get in 
sat behind the curtain in the rear. There is no evidence 
that His disciples were with Him, but it is natural to sup- 
pose that His mother, and perhaps some of His brothers 
and sisters were present to hear Him address His old 
neighbors. 

The day, however, turned out to be one of heartache to 
Jesus and His relatives. The Nazareth people found it 
hard to believe in Jesus because they had not noticed 
anything extremely marvellous in His early life among 

105 




(Copyright, 1896, by J. J. Tissot.) 

Christ in the Synagogue at 
Nazareth. 



106 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

them. They were hungry to see Him perform "a 
mighty work," such as they had heard exaggerated 
rumors of, in their own village square. They did not 
realize that their very attitude of love of sensation and 
distrust would be an effective hinderance to Jesus' en- 
deavors even to relieve the suffering. Still less did they 
understand that Jesus' every act was guided by the mo- 
tive of righteous and loving service. For Him to do a 
wonder for His own good or to give an exhibition of 
His powers for any purpose other than to comfort a dis- 
tressed heart or to help a pain-racked body was not con- 
sistent with His modest and noble character. 

The early Christians were influenced to some extent 
by this common tendency to overemphasize mere mar- 
vels, and to underemphasize moral worth as an evidence 
of God's presence. This is especially clear in some of 
the writings which have come to us from a later period 
than the New Testament. In these later writings, for 
example, the boy Jesus is pictured as making birds 
of clay and then, by clapping His hands, causing them to 
fly away as real birds. Many other extravagant and 
purposeless deeds are attributed to Jesus by writers of 
the first Christian centuries. The writings of our New 
Testament evangelists, on the other hand, are conspicu- 
ously in contrast with these later writings, in this re- 
gard. The New Testament writers were indeed human 
like ourselves, and it would be strange if they did not 
reflect to some extent the human failings as well as the 
spiritual strength of the Christian communities in which 
they lived. On the whole, however, it is a striking fact 
that in the four Gospels the unique moral greatness of 
the Master is everywhere brought into the foreground. 

We find, here at Nazareth, a Teacher with a great 
message from God and a humble spirit, ready to help the 
sick, but unwilling to seek self-aggrandizement, even 
when He was invited to it. And we find His old neigh- 
bors so anxious for some spectacular expression by Him 
which should convince the nation that the Messiah had 




CHRIST BLESSING LITTLE CHILDREN. 
From a painting by H. Hofmann. 



A DEMAND FOR MARVELS 107 

come out of their own village that they were unwilling 
to give Him a hearing. 

Jesus could not bear to leave any sufferer who was 
brought to Him without extending whatever relief was 
in His power. His motive was compassion. In instances 
where He healed we find that He rendered aid as quietly 
as possible, almost invariably insisting upon secrecy, from 
the patient and His friends. He was very dependent 
upon implicit faith in the Father, expressed in prayer, 
both by Himself and those who were present. He was 
also insistent that the sick man's heart should be made 
clean as well as his body. He often demanded that the 
sufferer should do something for himself, and at times He 
seems to have used simple medical appliances. 

We feel that we now understand how some of His 
healings were wrought. For example, we know that 
" demon possession" was a name then given to various 
mental disorders, which are relieved now by mental 
treatment, in which talking to the patient is prominent. 
Further, it is probable that many other cures by Jesus 
we would to-day easily recognize as " mental healing." 
As to still other instances, we must admit that we are 
not quite sure of the medical aspects, because of lack of 
sufficient medical knowledge at that time to give a correct 
diagnosis. 

The essential thing for us to learn to-day is that, at 
Nazareth, as probably was the case elsewhere, the atti- 
tude of the people prevented Jesus from doing what He 
would otherwise have been able to do. That is, they 
refused to give attention to the main thing. They raised 
side issues and even false issues. The main thing with 
Jesus was not healing a few sick people, but rescuing men 
from sin, bringing them into loving trust toward the 
Father and inspiring them to loving service of their fel- 
low men, of which the care and cure of the sick is a part. 
These were Jesus' real mighty works. His unique great- 
ness lies in His power to do this, not in His ability to 
control external forces. 



108 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

Your allegiance to Jesus does not depend, your disciple- 
ship of Him does not hang, upon an exact settling of the 
question of miracles, regarding which we can never get 
complete knowledge. 

Whether they can be fully explained or not, the so- 
called miracles take their place in the Gospel portraits of 
Jesus, and they form a halo and not a disfigurement. 
They suggest that radiant transcendence which is seen 
in Him after every thoughtful study of Him has been 
made. They also hint at the unmeasurable result of 
His consecration of His fullest powers to express the 
Father's will by deeds of love and help. Even though 
many so-called miracles of Jesus can be explained by 
laws of God that we now call natural, this does not change 
the essential impression of the person and purpose of 
the Master which has been cherished by the Christian 
centuries. His whole life was the one great miracle of 
history. The supreme evidence that God was in Jesus 
is just Jesus Himself, and not any external or physical 
thing whatever. 



CHAPTER XVIII 



THE ADVENTURES OF HIS TWELVE 

MESSENGERS 

After the twelve Disciples had been with Jesus for a 
number of months He sent them out two by two through 
the villages and hamlets of Galilee. It seems to have 
been at this time that He gave them the name ' 'Apostles." 
This is a very important word because it defines what 
they were to do. An apostle 
is one who not only carries a 
message but represents the 
one who sends it. These 
twelve men were not only to 
repeat what they had learned 
from Jesus, but they were to 
try as far as they could to 
act as He would act in their 
places. 

Their outfit was the sim- 
plest. Each of them carried 
nothing but a staff. They 
were not even to take a 
leather bag for carrying the 
provisions, and they were to 
put no money in their purses. In addition to sandals 
for the feet and a covering for the head, each one wore a 
tunic or coat, which was a garment something like a 
long shirt, with a girdle or belt around the waist, and 
a cloak, which was hardly more than a large square piece 
of cloth. When a man wore two tunics it was as a sign 
of wealth and Jesus forbade this. The reason that 
they needed neither money nor provisions was because 
they went afoot. Foot travellers can carry little if any 
extra food and clothing. It was the custom to give 

109 




Disciples Journeying. 



, 



110 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



even strangers food and shelter for nothing, especially 
if they were fellow Israelites. People would have been 
insulted if they had been offered pay. Jesus told them 
after they had gone into a house to remain there until 
they left the town. Whatever the quality of their enter- 
tainment, they were to accept it patiently, and to have 
but one stopping-place for each village. He told them 
to eat also whatever was of- 
fered them, without asking 
questions. 

At times a number of 
women accompanied them, al- 
though probably not for long 
journeys. One of them was 
the mother of James and John, 
and another was the mother 
of James the Little and Joses. 
These good friends seemed to 
have been their caretakers 
and nurses, and perhaps some- 
times when they were on long 
journeys, their food and the 
care of their clothing de- 
pended upon their activity. 
You may wonder what these Apostles could have to 
teach. We know how even to the very last they mis- 
understood Jesus in so many ways. They were often 
proud and selfish and obtuse, and they lacked sympathy 
with women and children. The Gospel according to 
Mark tells us that they ''preached that men should 
repent." Theirs must have been a very simple message. 
They probably went rapidly from place to place, talking 
informally with groups of people, and sometimes gather- 
ing large companies in village squares and in synagogues. 
Their work while urgent was not hurried, yet they would 
not remain long in a place, because they had not yet 
much to say. They could repeat and endeavor to ex- 
plain such teachings of Jesus so far as they understood 




(Copyright, 1896, by J. J. Tissot.) 
Saluting a House. 




Copyright by Underwood & Underwood. 

PLAIN OF GENNESARET AND THE SEA, NORTH FROM ABOVE 
MAGDALA TO UPPER GALILEE, PALESTINE. 



THE RESULTS OF THEIR WORK 



111 



them. They at least aroused a spirit of expectancy, they 
made the people feel that Jesus was continuing the work 
by which John the Baptist had made such a deep impres- 
sion throughout the nation, and they prepared the way 
for the coming of Jesus Himself, who probably often 
rejoined them, both for their encouragement and to give 
them further instruction. 

The Apostles also imitated their Master in deeds of 
mercy. The special work which they were able to do 
was to relieve some who, according to the belief of the 
time, were possessed of 
demons. An instance is 
given, however, in which 
they failed in this work. 

We do not know much 
about the results of their 
mission. No doubt they 
aroused the curiosity of 
people and prepared 
them to listen to Jesus 
with attention when He 
should appear. Al- 
though we find it easy 
to-day to criticise them 
because of their occasional meanness and short-sighted- 
ness, we must remember what splendid qualities they 
possessed. Although they were none of them well- 
to-do, they had left their little all to follow Jesus, and 
must have met with much ridicule and coldness in their 
work. Jesus was wise and thoughtful in sending them 
out in pairs, so that one could refresh the courage of the 
other. None of them, except Peter and John and James, 
ever made very much stir in the world, but they were 
the ones who, beyond everybody else, had the privilege 
of long companionship with the Master, and after they 
had learned to understand Him, we may be sure that 
their quiet work did much to convince others of His 
truth and love. Jesus certainly appreciated them, 




(Copyright J. J. Tissot, 1895-6.) 
Sending Out the Disciples Two by Two. 



112 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



and as time went on and Jesus became popular, and 
other men craved the privilege of becoming of their 
number, Jesus gave His twelve comrades the indirect 
compliment of setting up before these new candidates 
conditions of discipleship which the Twelve had willingly 
met. When a doctor of the law wished to become one 
of the Twelve Jesus reminded him that He and His 
followers were more homeless than the foxes and the 
birds. He refused to let one say farewell to his friends 

and still another to attend his 
father's funeral; and when His 
mother and brothers and sisters 
were waiting for Him one day in a 
crowd, and He was told that they 
were present, He looked lovingly 
around the circle of His faithful 
friends and said, — "These are my 
brothers, — these who know the 
will of God and do it." 

After some weeks of journey- 
ing through the Galilean villages 
the Twelve seem to have come 
back to Jesus and continued as 
His pupils. Again and again they 
probably went forth as His commissioners, but as His 
days grew short He regarded as more important that 
they should thoroughly understand His teaching and be 
ready to take up His work after He must lay it down. 

After the death of Jesus these twelve disciples did a 
varying and a few of them a distinguished work in spread- 
ing the gospel of Jesus. Their lives, though consecrated, 
were not abnormal. They married, some of them had 
homes, the majority of them continued to work each at 
his own calling. But the time of most of them was 
spent in journeyings, in labors and in sufferings. They 
could not but be conspicuous, this little handful who 
had actually lived with Jesus. 

As we look back now upon the lives of the Twelve we 




Head of Peter. 
From a Roman bas-relief. 



THEIR LATER CAREERS 



113 



see that theirs was a fourfold work. First, it was their 
privilege, as it has been that of all Christians since, to 
try to imitate Jesus, to live the life which He would have 
them live. Second, they were interpreters of Jesus. It 
was theirs to endeavor to remember and tell the words of 
Jesus, to explain His acts and in every possible way to 
try to reproduce His spirit for the men who came after 
Him. Third, they gave up their lives to the spread of 
this knowledge of Jesus wherever possible. One perhaps 
remained in Jerusalem and sent out Jewish Christians 




Peter Preaching. 

wherever Jews were scattered to tell them about their 
Messiah ; another, like Peter, had the privilege of stepping 
over the boundaries of race and telling of the Master to 
people of other lands; some perhaps went back to their 
ishing-nets, and, according to their ability, witnessed 
:or Him in their daily work. Thus they represented 
the different fields of Christian service now. And lastly, 
it was the solemn privilege of many of them (tradition 
says of all but one of them) to die for the sake of Jesus, 
and thus witness to the world the power of a faith which 
is loyal to the uttermost. 

Gigantic heroes ! At first humble workmen, how the 
presence and example of Jesus exalted them ! 



CHAPTER XIX 



THOSE WHO WERE WITH AND AGAINST JESUS 



Wherever Jesus went He came into daily contact with 
the Pharisees. They were the schoolmasters of the 
nation. It was they who were especially prominent as 
speakers in the synagogue services. While in theory any 
reputable Jew might be asked to explain the Scriptures, a 
difference was made between the interpretation of an 

individual and the authorized 
pronouncements of the Phar- 
isaic body. Whenever the 
two clashed, as they did in 
the case of the teaching of 
Jesus and that of such Phar- 
isees as He met either in the 
synagogues of Galilee or in 
other places of public re- 
sort, there was bound to be 
opposition from those who 
claimed to be the official 
expounders of the law. The 
greater the influence of Jesus 
the more bitter must that 
opposition become. 
Among the many points concerning which Jesus and 
the Pharisees differed, two came into special prominence 
about this time. 

The point about which Jesus and the Pharisees were 
most at discord was in regard to the whole matter of 
ceremonial observances. To the Pharisees these over- 
layings of the reasonable ancient laws were everything; 
to Jesus they were nothing. One matter that they 
brought up for discussion was the "washings." When- 

114 




Praying to Be Seen by Men. 



THE ISSUE OF TRADITION 



115 



ever the Pharisees sat down to a meal, or finished read- 
ing the Scripture in public, or started other tasks, they 
went through a formula of washing their hands, not to 
be clean, but in a peculiar ceremonial fashion. When 
a Pharisee did not wish to take too much trouble he 
might wash his hands "by intention" early in the morn- 
ing, in advance for each possible defilement of the day. 
Jesus had positively ignored this custom, which had 
become so highly esteemed that 
the Pharisees would not eat 
with any man who did not ob- 
serve it. They were aroused 
to bitter opposition by this at- 
titude of Jesus and questioned 
Him regarding it. It was a 
little matter, but Jesus thought 
it might as well become an is- 
sue between them as any. He 
called the spectators to Him, 
while the attending Pharisees 
listened. 

"This washing ceremony is 
to clean the hands which touch 
food, is it ? But the food that 
enters a man's body does not go to his heart. It goes to 
his stomach. Not the food that comes into a man's 
stomach defiles a man, but the words that go out of his 
heart, and no 'washing' can cleanse these." 

In another matter the Pharisees had allowed an out- 
ward form to become an act of meanness. This was in 
the matter of vows. Jesus showed how heartless this 
might become. 

"One of you has vowed that all his property shall be 
dedicated to God. Then his father or his mother becomes 
poor, and is in suffering, but the son who out of anger or 
enthusiasm has made his vow says to them : ' No ! I 
cannot help you; my money is sacred.' Is that the right 
way to keep the laws of your fathers?" 




Eastern Hand-Washing. 



116 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

The Pharisees also observed two fast days each week, 
while Jesus permitted His disciples to ignore them. 

You see how Jesus was standing for real righteousness 
and justice. It was a system against a man, and an iron- 
bound code vs. a life of compassion. The common people 
were ignorant and docile. They tried in a pitiful way 
to follow each fresh interpretation that made harder 
the ancient national laws, and the injustice of it all was 
that the scribes were all the time contriving substitutes 
and subterfuges whereby they themselves could be quite 
self-indulgent. This body of Pharisees which had once 
been the nation's defense against political tyranny was 
now itself a spiritual tyranny. 

But Jesus had not stopped at that point. Not only 
did He ignore the tradition that overlay the Law, but He 
even dared to contradict the sacred Torah itself. In the 
matter of the observance of the Sabbath, which was not 
only "the badge of the Jew," but a matter of explicit 
direction in the Law, Jesus proclaimed His own lordship 
of that day. In all these radical positions Jesus was not 
a destroyer. Jesus claimed that the new Torah which He 
proclaimed for the Sabbath was diviner than the old. 
Fasts, He said, were not appropriate to the honeymoon 
days of the Kingdom; besides they did not fit into a 
system of free and joyous service of the Father, any more 
than a new piece of cloth does as a patch upon an old one 
or than fermenting wine does into old and cracked wine- 
skins. As to the sacrifices, Jesus stood with the almost 
forgotten prophets as against the priestly party, that God 
wants mercy rather than sacrifice and righteousness 
rather than gifts of lambs and calves. 

Here too Jesus, not only in precept but in practice, 
was at complete odds with the Pharisees. They regarded 
themselves as ceremonially defiled when they had any 
physical contact with unrighteous persons. As guardians 
of the orthodoxy of the nation, they were particularly 
careful not to have intercourse with those who had been 
expelled from the synagogue, or excommunicated, as we 



RELATIONS WITH SINNERS 117 

would say. These were cut off from all civil and eccle- 
siastical privileges as Jews. Rich or poor, they were "un- 
clean." 

On the other hand Jesus made it clear that He really 
wished to have this sort of people as His companions. 
"The Son of man is come to seek and save that which was 
lost." His mission was "to the lost sheep of the house 
of Israel." He was sent not to the well, but to the sick. 

The result of Jesus' interest in these unchurched folks 
was unexpectedly encouraging. "All the tax-collectors 
and sinners used to come and associate with Him like 
friends. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured at it 
greatly, and said, 'This man receives sinners and eats 
with them ! ' " Even harder for them to understand than 
His religious tolerance was His genuine friendship for 
people who were not in polite society. 

Among these outcasts two classes especially are often 
mentioned as having the courage to approach Jesus : tax- 
collectors and women of ill repute. That Jesus should 
not only form the acquaintance of taxmen, but should 
actually admit one of them to His inner circle, was a 
constant challenge to the intolerance of the Pharisees. 
The Gospel according to John relates the position which 
Jesus took when some of the Pharisees brought to His 
attention a woman whose sin had been most flagrant, and 
demanded that He coincide with the reiterated penal- 
ties laid down in the Law against such sin. "The Law 
deserves respect," was Jesus' verdict, "but which of you 
is worthy to throw the first stone at her!" None felt 
that he was so free from sin as to do this. 

You see how Jesus was standing for the righteousness 
that is at the heart of all laws. The ancient code of Israel 
was perhaps more sacred to Him than to the Pharisees, 
for He often found unexpected truths and tendernesses 
in it, but it had no value for Him when it did not have a 
message for those who had failed in the true uses of life. 

Jesus, as we have been saying, was on the side of the 
common people. The Pharisees claimed to be their 



118 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



teachers, but they were as fastidious as the high-caste 
people of India to-day in their fear of contact with what 
they called "the rabble." Jesus told a story in the pres- 
ence of some of the Pharisees and the multitude, to show 
how He believed God looks at this matter. Let us read 
it in our modern speech, and call it "The Story of the 
Good Father.'' 

' ' Once there was a father who had two sons. The older 
one represents you Pharisees, the younger these people 

beside me. The younger son 
asked for his share of the 
property. So the father di- 
vided his property among 
them. A few days later this 
younger son gathered to- 
gether all he had, and went 
away into a distant land ; and 
there he squandered all his 
property foolishly." 

You can seem to see the 
Pharisees smiling proudly. 
Truly that was a good picture 
of the way the common peo- 
ple wasted their opportuni- 
ties. But listen. 
"When he had spent all he had, a fearful famine set 
in all over that country, and he began to be in sore want. 
He was reduced to be a slave to a farmer in that country, 
who sent him to take care of unclean swine. And his 
food was the same as theirs." 

The Pharisees nod their heads solemnly. 
"But by and by, coming to his senses, he thought of 
his father. 'Even his hired servants have more bread 
than they can eat, while I am here — dying of hunger. 
I will get up and go back to my father, and I will say to 
him, Father, I have done wrong against God and against 
you. I am no longer fit to be your son. Treat me as 
one of your servants.' " 







The Lost Son. 




Copyright by J. J. Tissot. Courtesy of the Tissot Picture Societj 

THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON. 



THE STORY OF THE GOOD FATHER 119 

You must imagine many of the people listening now 
with tears in their eyes. Such is their own pitiful situa- 
tion. Oh, what can be the end of the story ! 

"So he got up and went back to his father. While 
he was perhaps hesitating to approach his old home, 
his father spied him, and his heart was touched. He 
ran — he threw his arms around his neck — he began to 
kiss him. The son began to say what he had intended, 
but before he had finished, the father cried out to his 
servants, 'Be quick and fetch a robe — the best in the 
house — and put it on him; give him a ring for his finger 
and shoes for his feet; and bring the calf that we have 
been fattening and kill it, that we may eat and be joyful. 
For this is my son, who was dead, and has come to life 
again; he was lost and is found.' So they began merry- 
making." 

Now Jesus turns directly to the Pharisees present. 

"Meanwhile the older son (who represents you) was 
on the farm, but when he came home, after he got near 
the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called 
one of the servants and inquired what it meant. 'Your 
brother has come back,' answered the servant, 'and your 
father has killed the calf that has been fattening, because 
he has him back safe and sound.' 

"This made him angry, and he would not go in. 

"So his father came out, and urged him. 

" 'No,' he said, 'look at all the years I have been work- 
ing like a slave without ever once disobeying your laws, 
and yet to me you have never given a kid so that I might 
make merry with my friends.' 

"'My child,' answered the father gently, 'you are al- 
ways with me. Everything that is here is yours. We 
could not help making merry and being glad, for your 
brother was dead, and he has come to life again ; he was 
lost and is found.' " 

You see, Jesus was reminding his listeners that God is 
the Father of the foolish younger brother just as much 
as of the wise older one. 



120 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

Then notice how the word "brother" is emphasized. 
The father says to the older one, not "This my son" 
but "this your brother," and even the servant reminds 
him that the one who has come home safe is his brother. 

These were the men who were against Jesus. Who was 
on His side ? The people of His province disowned Him. 
His own relatives entirely misunderstood Him. There 
were a few Galileans who were faithful, and later we shall 
see how they stood by His side in His days of danger. 
But the circle of His influence was now narrowing to that 
of His twelve Disciples. If we could look into their faces 
to-day, those men of stooped shoulders, hard, knotted 
hands and unenlightened countenances, we should feel 
a chill of despair in supposing that such men could be 
worthy to understand or hand down the message of the 
Master. One of them, at least, Simon the Zealot, had 
been a member of the revolutionary party, and was, no 
doubt, bitterly disappointed that Jesus did not assume 
the political leadership of the people. Probably Judas 
Iscariot shared the same hopes. The rest of them were 
full-blooded Jews, strongly influenced by the teachings 
of the Pharisees, and they interpreted the ancient Scrip- 
tures in accordance with the prejudices of their time. 
Through such men as these the cause of Jesus hereafter 
must endeavor to make its way. 



CHAPTER XX 
THE MARTYRDOM OF A HERO 

The wily Herod Antipas had foreseen the political 
danger if John the Baptist should continue to stir up the 
people, and long before his disciples had developed or- 
ganized strength to protect him, he shut him up in prison, 
leaving Jesus therefore to assume the leadership of this 
national movement alone. 

Upon the highlands east of the Jordan in the country 
of Moab, overlooking the scenes of his short triumph, 
John had been placed in the fortress castle of Antipas, 
who was the ruler of Galilee and Perea. Antipas was the 
son of Herod the Great, and although he was not so 
vigorous as his masterly father he was as shrewd. Jesus 
once accurately described him as a ''fox." He rightly 
saw that he could not venture to leave at large a man who 
had such power over great multitudes of his subjects, if 
his own reign was to be undisputed. But neither dared 
he kill him, for fear of the people. 

Herod seems to have felt no enmity toward John. 
One of the Gospels tells us that he enjoyed talking with 
him, and it suggests that the tremendous personality of 
John secured great influence over him. "He did many 
things" because of him, say some of the ancient manu- 
scripts. John had access to his own friends, and at this 
point in the story he sent some of them with a message 
to Jesus. 

You are to think of John in prison as being like a wild 
beast in a cage. Always an outdoor man, he had little 
use even for the indoor luxuries of a court and no mind 
at all to be shut up within stone walls. It was doubly 
hard for a man who had swayed thousands to have no 

121 



122 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



companions but his jailers, a few friends and the weak 
and insincere half- Jew, Herod Antipas. Was he not 
often tempted to think his life a failure, and to wonder 
at the providence that had cut off his usefulness in the 
strength of his days ? A life in shackles was far from the 
ideal of one who wanted to level mountains and fill up 
valleys for the sake of the coming Israelite kingdom. 
But his was a soldier's heart, and when he could no longer 

live on the firing line himself, 
he remembered that there was 
another who was free. What 
was Jesus doing? Was He 
fulfilling the promise of His 
youth? Was Jesus true to 
the message ? John had prob- 
ably heard broken accounts 
of Jesus' work in Galilee, ac- 
counts which had gratified 
him, for they indicated that 
his early supporter had de- 
veloped unusual power. But 
was He in line with John's own 
hopes ? Was He laying his 
axe at the root of the tree and 
cutting down the sinners who cumbered the ground ? 
Was He winnowing out the souls of men and gathering 
the wheat, and preparing the chaff for the burning ? 

The particular question which John sent his friends 
to ask Jesus was a startling one, "Are you the One that 
was to come or must we look for another ?" 

It is somewhat difficult for us to know just what John 
meant by this. So far as our information goes it is not 
certain that John had proclaimed the coming of the 
Messiah; he seems rather to have looked forward to the 
intervention of God himself. It was He for whom he 
believed himself to be the royal roadmaker. John held 
that the kingdom was coming after God had personally 
appeared to judge His people. John's question sounds 




John the Baptist in Prison. 



JOHN'S QUESTION 123 

almost as if it referred to some secret conversation which 
he may have had with Jesus before his arrest. 

"Are you taking up my work? Are you the Elijah 
whom God has given to take my place ? Are you true to 
the commission?" This is perhaps the meaning of the 
challenge of the fiery prisoner. 

Jesus made no immediate answer. The day passed 
as usual. Jesus went on teaching those who gathered 
around Him. He ministered to the sick and troubled. 
It is in close connection with the story of this day that 
the Gospel according to Matthew quotes a saying of 
Jesus which has meant more of comfort to the distressed 
of earth than any other that He ever spoke. It may not 
have been spoken at just this time. It may have been 
spoken many times. But it so completely states the 
character of Jesus' personal influence that we may place 
it here : 

"Come unto me, all you that are weary and heavy laden, 
And I will refresh you. 
Fit my yoke unto you and learn of me, 
For I am meek and lowly of heart, 
And you shall find rest unto your souls. 
For my yoke is easy 
And my burden is fight." 

And the Gospel of Matthew tells us that it was upon 
this day also, and perhaps at this very moment, that He 
lifted His eyes in prayer and thanked the Father that 
children could now know what the wise and understanding 
had never before been able to find out. 

When evening came, it was time for John's comrades 
to start home. Jesus called them to Him, and said: 
1 ' Go and give your report to John of what you have heard 
and seen. The blind of heart are getting their sight, the 
lame of heart are walking, the deaf of heart are getting 
their hearing, and the dead of heart are being raised to 
life, and the Good News is being told to the poor. Happy 
is the man who will believe in Me !" 



124 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

The evangelists also tell us that it was upon this same 
occasion that Jesus spoke those generous words about 
the undaunted desert preacher, which we may perhaps 
render as follows : ' ' He is greater than any prophet ! He 
is greater than any man who ever lived ! Yet — because 
he came before the days of the kingdom — he that is lesser 
in the kingdom has greater opportunity than he." 

We do not know how John received this message and 
report. This was not the kind of Elijah he had been 
dreaming of. Instead of the axe and the winnowing fan 
and the fire for sinners, here was one who was kind to the 
most sinful. In place of fasting and ceremonies of 
penitence, this man was happy at men's feasts. And 
instead of cutting a royal road for a Deliverer, he was 
helping the lame to their feet and giving an easy yoke 
to the burdened. But what was that last word of Jesus ? 
"Happy is the man who will believe in Me !" It was as 
though Jesus assumed the command, and asked John to 
be patient and obey. John had a soldier's heart. We 
do not know, but we like to think that, even if he could 
not understand, he could be loyal. 

The story comes to a sudden climax. Herod Antipas 
was an adulterer. He had met in Rome his brother's 
wife, and, without taking the trouble to divorce his own 
wife, he had married her. This sort of thing was done 
every day in dissolute Rome, but it was an offense be- 
yond all others to the Jews. "It is a sin for you to have 
her !" the prisoner John had stoutly told his royal jailer. 
We do not know how the guilty man received this fear- 
less rebuke, but it made the woman his mortal enemy. 
Herodias was of this same sin-stained family, for she 
was Antipas' niece as well as his wife. If he was a fox, 
she was a tigress. Her plot was heartless but sure. 
Antipas would not dare deliberately to kill John, but 
according to the story in Mark's Gospel, she was able 
to trick him into doing it. 

At a great feast when many Jewish men of wealth were 
shaming their national ideals by being guests at an 



THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN 125 

enemy's table, she brought forward her daughter Salome 
to entertain the company. High born though she was, 
this shameless woman imitated the coarse dances of the 
paid performers at Roman courts, and the king, perhaps 
half intoxicated, was so enraptured that he rose to his 
feet and cried aloud that she must ask any present in 
his power, as a reward for her skill. 

The trap was instantly snapped. "Give me John's 
head, here, on a silver platter," she replied. 

The king had passed his word. Nobody was present 
who would befriend the prisoner. He forgot caution, 
and yielded to the woman who had proven stronger and 
more shrewd than himself, and soon the hideous trophy 
was laid at the heartless woman's feet. 

Herod did not live on without retribution. The ghost 
of John seemed to haunt him, and when he heard months 
later of Jesus it seemed to him as though the resurrected 
John was abroad through the land, gathering a new 
popular uprising against him. His own neglected wife 
brought her father's army against him and he was van- 
quished. Far off in Lyons, France, he spent his last 
broken days as an uncrowned exile. 



CHAPTER XXI 
JESUS SHARING WITH THE MULTITUDE 

The death of John the Baptist came at the apparent 
height of Jesus' popularity. It cast the shadow of an 
approaching change. 

As long as John was in prison, the very fact that 
Herod did not dare to take his life was a testimony to 
the power of the popular movement which John had 
begun and which Jesus was now leading. His strong 
and picturesque character, while it survived, was a 
challenge to courage on the part of his friends. But 
if his death should be unavenged, what might prevent 
Herod, whose domain was Galilee as well as Perea, from 
laying his hand upon Jesus and His followers ? 

The shock of this sudden catastrophe, the need of fore- 
thought as to the future, the personal bereavement, 
caused Jesus to feel the need of quiet both for Himself 
and His friends. 

"Come," He said, "let us get away early, to some lonely 
spot by ourselves, and rest awhile." 

There were perhaps fourteen in the party that left 
Capernaum. Besides Jesus and the Twelve there may 
have been a boy, the lad to whom John refers in his 
account of the events; he may have been Peter's son. 
With the lad perhaps at the tiller and Jesus on the seat 
beside him they made the short journey to the south- 
west shore in an hour. But the people were before 
them. It was probably Passover time and many were 
on the road to Jerusalem. These caravans along the 
lakeside road added themselves to the people of the 
neighboring villages who heard of Jesus' coming and 
filled the strand before His boat drew up. Within the 

126 



THE DAY BESIDE THE LAKE 



127 



morning hours one of the largest companies which Jesus 
had ever met surrounded Him. He at once gave up His 
promised rest, and devoted Himself to their needs. 

It was almost a national gathering, and appropriately 
the Gospel according to Luke tells us that "he taught 
them concerning the kingdom of God." Toward night 
the great company sat down to dinner on the slope over- 
looking the lake, looking, so the account in Mark tells us, 
in their many- colored 
garments, against the 
background of the grass, 
like great flower-beds. 

Jesus Himself had an 
important part in help- 
ing to furnish the multi- 
tude with food for this 
lakeside supper. It seems 
indeed a parable of His 
whole Galilean ministry, 
now drawing to a close. 
From the slenderest of 
resources Jesus satisfied 
the multitude. Without wealth, name or title, without a 
patron or an influential friend, Jesus, blessed by God, fed 
the hearts of men. 

Furthermore this is the memorable fact : upon this na- 
tional anniversary, where a throng national in character 
was gathered, the outstanding leader of the nation (now 
that John was gone) engaged in an act by which He taught 
the method of the Kingdom of God. It is a kingdom 
of brotherhood. The Master shared with the Disciples, 
the Twelve shared with their neighbors, and these with 
theirs, clear to the outskirts of the throng. Not only 
were all fed, but all helped. Each one received not 
merely bread but also the helpful hand of his brother. 
The precise source of the food is unimportant, if only we 
know this, that it was a communion feast of brothers. 

The day closed in the greatest excitement. The en- 




Jesus and the Disciples Setting Sail. 



128 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

thusiasm of the happy, united throng was contagious. 
The martyrdom of John had stirred their patriotic feel- 
ings to the utmost. Who should avenge his death but 
his old comrade and co-worker, Jesus ? When would be 
a better time to arise than now, at the national anni- 
versary, when Herod's murder of John was the challenge 
to the nation either to demand revenge or forever remain 
supine? And when better could this Jesus, who had 
won such power over them without ever breaking silence 
as to His real purpose and aims for the nation, declare 
Himself than now, when all were expectant ? There 
was also the element of affection. As we have seen, the 
Disciples were first won to Jesus, without any real under- 
standing of Him, purely on the basis of personal friend- 
ship. Scores of poor and sick people owed their happi- 
ness and their very lives to Him. His contagious gracious- 
ness had won Him hosts of affectionate comrades. He 
had in His hands the keys to power, and if ever the 
voice spoke again, which in His earliest manhood told 
Him that He could lead a successful rebellion, it must 
have spoken now. And the urgency of the voice was 
that it was now or never. If He did not grasp, at this 
time, the reins of power, there would never again be so 
good an opportunity. 

But Jesus had decided this question once for all. It 
would be popular indeed to be a Bread-King. Jesus 
knew the pathetic longings of these folk, poor, misgoverned 
and well-nigh hopeless, to be part of a new Israel in which 
they should have no more work, no more poverty and no 
more taxes. But the way to such a future was a path 
deep in blood. When He should have established Him- 
self as military conqueror, He would rule over a people 
who at their best had proven entirely unfit for self-govern- 
ment and who were less fitted for such a task than ever. 
His selfish domain would probably crumble at the £rs1 
shock, and its people would have risen against Him as 
soon as He had disappointed their most foolish wish. 

Jesus, however, had chosen His calling. He had de- 



DEPARTURE OF THE MULTITUDE 129 

termined not to be the petty monarch of a Jewish domain. 
He had a message for the world, a word that could be 
only spoken in His own short life, which must sink into 
the soil and wait for centuries for its growth, but which 
should bear fruit to feed the whole world. 

This word was as to the kingdom of brotherhood. The 
heart of the story of the feeding of the five thousand is 
this saying of Jesus: "They need not go away. Bring 
them to me." When Jesus stood, with His Twelve about 
Him, sharing food with them, which each in turn shared 
with his next neighbor until all were fed, that was a picture 
of Jesus' kingdom of brotherhood : this, and not conquest 
or political revolution, was the spirit of its Master, the 
method of its life. 

The greatness of Jesus is seen that day not merely in 
His abnegation, but in the skilful manner in which He 
handled a dangerous situation. His disciples were as 
much carried away as were the crowd by the excitement 
of thinking their hopes were at once to be gratified. They 
might easily commit Him by some act of folly to a posi- 
tion which He could not countenance. With instant 
authority He sent them to help in the dispersal of the 
multitude, and when they returned to find Him, He had 
vanished. Bewildered, they sailed home in the darkness, 
while Jesus on the lonely hillside renewed in prayer His 
poise and self-mastery. 



CHAPTER XXII 
THE BREAK WITH THE PHARISEES 

Up to this time the contact of Jesus with the Pharisees 
had been with individuals, but now His work had assumed 
such proportions as to demand official inquiry, and a 
delegation was sent down from Jerusalem to examine 
Him. 

"When is the Kingdom of heaven, which you teach, 
coming ?" was probably their first question of Jesus. 

"The Kingdom of God," replied Jesus, "comes in no 
visible form, and no one can say ' See ! here it is' ; or, 
1 See ! there it is ! ' for behold, the Kingdom of God is in 
the midst of you." 

But as the Pharisees could imagine no "coming" ex- 
cept the celestial and marvellous appearing of their Mes- 
siah, they persisted: "But if the Kingdom is at hand, 
show us at least one of the signs of its coming." 

"Do you want a sign in the sky ? " asked Jesus, bitterly. 
"When the sky is red at evening, you say, 'That is a sign 
that it will be fine to-morrow ! ' If it is red in the morning, 
you say, 'It will be stormy to-day.' You know well 
enough how to read the signs of the sky; why can you 
not read the signs of the times ?" 

By this answer probably Jesus referred to the deep 
spiritual hunger which He had met on every hand, the 
works of the Kingdom which everywhere beckoned to be 
done, and the response of the few who had already en- 
listed in the service of the Kingdom. 

Perhaps on the same occasion, when the Pharisees per- 
sisted in their demand for a sign, Jesus replied, "An evil 
and unfaithful generation is seeking after a sign; and 
no sign shall be given to it, but the sign of Jonah." By 

130 



THE GREAT DENUNCIATION 131 

this He meant that just as the preaching of Jonah had 
converted the Ninevites, in spite of the fact that Jonah 
had performed no miracles, so His life and teaching should 
convince the Jews, without any additional marvels or signs. 

There was indeed one "sign" which the Pharisees could 
not ignore, the merciful deeds of Jesus in healing the 
sick. This they did not recognize as a Messianic sign for 
they had anticipated that the Messiah would show His 
power in overwhelming the heathen rather than in 
strengthening the weak. They had evidently not read 
that great chapter in their own prophets (Ezekiel 34), 
where God rebukes His shepherds for their neglect of the 
sick and broken, and promises that He Himself will be- 
come the searching and healing Shepherd of His forgotten. 
These deeds of Jesus, however, required explanation, and 
it was easily found in their own system of thought. When 
an unexplainable event did not come as the result of the 
intervention of God from above, it must come from the 
powers beneath, and to these demonic forces they ascribed 
the merciful acts of Jesus. "That Kingdom," replied 
Jesus, perhaps with a touch of sarcasm, "is not likely 
thus to be divided against itself. For how can Satan 
cast out Satan ?" 

It is at this time, according to Luke, that Jesus delivered 
the magnificent address which has been called "The Great 
Denunciation. ' ' The situation could no longer be covered 
up with gentle words. The people must choose between 
Him and the Pharisees. In some public place, "in the 
hearing of all the people," Jesus boldly called by name 
the hollow hypocrisies and the meaningless ceremonials 
by which these pretenders to religion deceived both them- 
selves and the people. In two different connections and 
in somewhat different language the Gospels give us por- 
tions of what must be considered as one of the world's 
great orations, an address in which biting sarcasm and 
searching analysis and immeasurable pity are mingled 
as Jesus held up for future generations His portrait of 
the hypocrite in religion. 



132 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

But the populace were not ready for their Liberator. 
The enshackling requirements of the Pharisees had be- 
come an accepted habit, and the authority which this 
impressive delegation from the capital represented was 
too real to be gainsaid. The Capernaum people yielded 
to the verdict of their religious oligarchy. 

We do not know in just what terms the decision against 
Jesus was stated. The Fourth Gospel, which seems to 
have access to fresh sources, connects the rejection of 
Jesus closely with the feeding of the five thousand. That 
immense congregation of people had apparently been the 
occasion of the coming of the delegation from Jerusalem, 
and the refusal of Jesus to work a ' ' sign ' ' of His Messiah- 
ship immediately afterward was the signal for His expul- 
sion. 

The decision probably took the form of a kind of ex- 
communication, and thenceforth Jesus was an unchurched 
Israelite. But it was more. Even an ostracized Jew 
could not be permitted to have such influence as Jesus 
was wielding. A longer stay in Capernaum was made 
impossible for Jesus and His disciples, and He was 
driven forth as an exile. Some have thought that the 
intention of the Pharisees was to force Jesus into Judea, 
where He would be more easily in their power. 

What was the attitude of the disciples of Jesus after He 
had been disowned by the Pharisees ? The Gospel of 
John says that "upon this many of the disciples went 
back, and walked no more with him." It also adds 
Simon's word of pathetic loyalty: "Lord, to whom else 
shall we go ? It is you who have the words of eternal 
life." Simon and the Twelve were bewildered to find 
that their Teacher was unacceptable to the teachers of 
their race, but what could they do ? They could not 
go back to them and to bondage. They must go forward, 
on with Jesus, even if in darkness ! 






CHAPTER XXIII 

JESUS AMONG A FOREIGN PEOPLE 

After Jesus had been rejected by the Galileans, at the 
instigation of the Pharisees, He decided to take the dis- 
ciples away by themselves into a foreign country for 
a number of months, in order that He might thoroughly 
train them in the message of the Kingdom. He wished 



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Old Tyre. 



(From a photograph. ) 



to fit them both to understand it and be able to teach 
it, if He Himself should finally be overwhelmed by the 
rising enmity of the religious leaders of Israel. Unwill- 
ing to meet His foes upon their own ground in Judea 
until this preparation should be complete and desirous 
also to avoid the dangerous suspicions of Herod, who 
already identified Him with the martyred John, Jesus 
surprised His friends by asking them to fill their haver- 
sacks for a long journey, and turned their footsteps 
away from the confines of their native land. 

Jesus led His companions northwestward into the 
mountains of upper Galilee. Day by day they went 

133 



134 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

farther from home and finally passed the boundary-line 
of their own country, and were over in Phoenicia. The 
summer heat which dries the springtime grass was com- 
ing on, but it was cool on the wind-swept table-lands and 
in the shadowed ravines. They probably covered two 
hundred miles that summer. 

^ They may have visited both Tyre and Sidon, the mag- 
nificent capitals of the heroic race which had swept over all 
seas and touched every shore. Upon the quays of Tyre, 
among the crowded bales and heaps of merchandise, 




Ruined Aqueduct at Tyre. 

Jesus and His companions came face to face with black 
Moors, tawny Egyptians and dark-eyed Spaniards. 
They traversed the cliffs of Sidon, and beyond its temples 
and royal tombs, its groves and gardens, they saw the 
blue sea, the barrier, not the highway, of their nation. 
The Jews are not sailors, but these fishermen may have 
found excitement in listening to the sailors who told 
them fascinating tales of the sights in far-off lands. 
Jesus wished them to forget the disappointments of 
Galilee and to listen with sympathy, and even with 
admiration, to the thoughts of other races. It may have 
been somewhat startling to these exclusive Jewish men 
to find out that these Syrians ridiculed their race for 
its baseless pride of superiority and its isolation from 
other peoples. 



JESUS AND FOREIGNERS 



135 



Jesus was probably not very successful, however, in 
developing a sense of fellowship between His followers 
and the strangers whom they met in these seaport cities. 
The Jews applied the coarse epithet "dogs" to all for- 
eigners. Perhaps some special displeasure of the Twelve 
at the willingness of Jesus to teach some of these Tyrians 
led to the incident which took place at this time. 

One day there came to His Tyrian lodging-house a 
woman who sought relief for her little daughter, who 
was deranged. She was of the old aboriginal Canaanite 




Old Castle at Sidon. 



(From a photograph.) 



stock that had settled in the land before the Jews, just 
as the Indians did in our own country. Jesus determined 
to let this opportunity be a test of the human sympathy 
of His friends. 

Matthew seems to represent her as making her first 
appeal a shrewd reminder of the old friendly relations 
between King David and her ancestral monarch, King 
Hiram. 

"Have pity, O Son of David !" she cried. 

But Jesus deliberately turned away and went out of 
the house. The poor woman followed Him, begging for 
help. Jesus waited to see if the disciples would inter- 
vene in her behalf, but no, they were pleased that He 
ignored her and perhaps even urged that He should send 
her away. 



136 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 




Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman. 



"Lord, help me !" she cried out in despair. 
"I have been sent," He said, turning to her, "only to 

the wandering sheep of 
Israel's fold. Let the chil- 
dren have enough first, for 
it is not fair to take the 
children's loaf and cast it to 
the household puppies." Do 
you suppose there was a 
twinkle in His eye as He 
said this, or did she notice 
that He did not speak of her 
as one of the homeless street 
dogs, but as the pets which 
the Tyrians kept in their 
houses ? 

With quick-witted shrewd- 
ness she responded: "Yes, 
Master, but the puppies often 
feed off the scraps that fall from their owner's table!" 

Was not that a keen an- 
swer ? ' ' Dogs ' ' her people 
might be, but God was their 
maker and the owner of them 
all. 

"Well said!" cried Jesus, 
with hearty pleasure. ' ' What 
splendid faith ! Let it be even 
as you will. Go home. Your 
little daughter shall be well." 
It is interesting to remem- 
ber that the only other time 
Jesus had ever been able to 
use such warm terms of praise 
was a few days before in Ca- 
pernaum and to another for- 
eigner. The captain of the Roman city guard, who had 
built the synagogue for the Jews, had been in need of help 





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Jesus and the Nobleman. 



JESUS AND FOREIGNERS 



137 



for his man-servant. In this case even the Jews inter- 
ceded in his behalf, because of his benevolences to them. 
Jesus started at once to the man's home, but when He 
was close by, the officer sent one of his own friends with 
another message. "Sir," he said, "I am not of enough 
importance to have you come beneath my roof; that in- 
deed is the reason why I did not come to you. Just say 




View in the Lebanon Mountains. 



(From a photograph.) 



During His first northern journey Jesus and His disciples probably spent considerable time in 
the region of these mountains. 

the word and the boy will get well. For I know how it 
is myself; I, too, am under orders, and I have soldiers 
under me, and if I say to one ' Go, ' he goes, and to an- 
other 'Do this,' he does it." It was then that Jesus 
again exclaimed, ' ' Splendid faith ! Never in any Israelite 
have I seen faith like this." 

Do you see Jesus standing on the cliffs of Tyre upon 
a summer evening, looking across the great sea toward 
the lands beyond, which He should never visit, and mur- 
muring to Himself what He said in Capernaum, concern- 
ing that Roman captain? "Many shall come from the 



138 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 









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Cedars of Lebanon. 



West as well as from the East and take their place at 
table beside Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of 
Heaven, while the heirs of Heaven will be banished into 

the darkness outside." 

Such were the men whom 
Jesus might have had as fol- 
lowers. As He looked toward 
Greece and Rome that day, 
was He tempted to leave His 
own bigoted countrymen and 
carry His gospel Himself to 
the outer world that needed 
Him and that seemed so ready 
to welcome Him ? 

It has been said that Jesus 
was no patriot. His next ac- 
tion is the best answer. He 
deliberately turned His back 
upon whatever opportunities 
there were in other lands and returned to His own coun- 
try. He would not desert His race. He led His friends 
eastward through the deep gorge of the Leontes River, up 
over the sunny range of 
the Lebanon, to where 
on some golden autumn 
day they looked down 
the long eastern slopes 
to Damascus, the trea- 
sure city of the East. 
But even from this earth- 
ly Paradise Jesus turned 
to His own people. 

With garments faded 
and torn, with bodies 
hardened by exposure 

and exercise, but refreshed and invigorated by these 
wholesome methods of outdoor life, the Disciples hastened 
homeward. Understanding more deeply some of the 




On the Road to CiESAREA Philippi. 



THE RETURN TO CAPERNAUM 



139 



Master's ideals, though not yet in sympathy with His 
interest in foreigners, they returned with Jesus in the 
autumn to Capernaum. 

When Jesus and His friends reached Capernaum they 
found the city all in turmoil against them. The Galileans 
were a passionate people, and, like His old neighbors at 
Nazareth, they could not remain merely neutral. If they 
would not take Jesus as their 
leader, they would be His in- 
veterate foes. There was no 
longer safety of life for Him 
in His home, and only once 
again after this departure was 
He seen in the streets of 
Capernaum. 

This time they went direct- 
ly north about fifty miles to 
Caesarea Philippi, the northern 
capital which Herod Philip had 
rebuilt upon the very shoulder 
of lofty Mount Hermon. 

They were all seated one day 
by the roadside, perhaps just 
after the common meal. Jesus had been waiting all through 
these months of adventure and experience to ask one 
question, the most important one which He could possi- 
bly ask. 

"Who do people say that I am?" was His approach to 
the question. They had heard this question often before, 
though never from the lips of Jesus. You know, it is 
usually easy enough to say who a man is. If any one 
asked them who Herod Philip was, anybody would have 
said, He is the ruler of Iturea. Who is Simon Peter? 
A fisherman of Galilee. Who is Matthew? One who 
was recently the tax-gatherer of the Plain of Gennes- 
aret. 

But who is Jesus ? The Twelve reported what people 
were saying. 




Cjssarea Philippi and a Part of 
Mount Hermon. 



140 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



"Some say, John the Baptist." 

"Some say, Elijah." 

"And some say, Jeremiah." 

"And others say, Some other of the ancient prophets 
come back again." 

"But who do you say that I am?" 

Was there a long pause before any reply came ? Had 
they wrestled together about this during the days since 
they had first known Jesus? What should they say of 
One who had become their hero and cherished friend, and 
yet who daily disappointed them by His interest in for- 
eigners, His sympathy with outcasts, His contempt of 




Jesus Talking with His Disciples. 

their childhood teachers? Whom should they call this 
man of prayer who seldom prayed in public, this healer 
of disease who yet never allowed any one to boast of His 
cures, this teacher of religion who was being disowned by 
their religious leaders and their old neighbors? The 
prophets had told of a coming deliverer, yet was Jesus' 
way going to lead to deliverance ? But the one subject 
of His teaching was the same as theirs, the Kingdom of 
God. What Israel hoped and agonized for Jesus loved 
with all His heart, the return of the Kingdom to Israel. 
And so, although none of them saw how Jesus ' way could 
possibly be in harmony with their hopes, there was at 
least one man among them who loved and trusted Him 



PETER'S CONFESSION 141 

so much that he uttered aloud what had for many cen- 
turies been only the whisper of a nation's hope : 

"You are the Messiah, the anointed of the Eternal !" 
Jesus grasped him eagerly by the hand. He had 
found one man who had begun to understand Him. 

"Blessed art thou, Simon, son of John," he exclaimed. 
"You did not get this from men. This has come to you 
from my heavenly Father. And let me tell you who 
you are : you are the man like rock (the word Peter means 
rock), and upon such rock (he is speaking like a car- 
penter, and pointing perhaps to the corner-stone of a 
wayside shrine) I will build my church, and the Powers of 
Death shall never overcome it ! " 



CHAPTER XXIV 
THE SOURCE OF JESUS' COURAGE 

We do not know all of the conversation which ensued, 
in that quiet place, between Jesus and His friends. It 
seems likely that it continued in the direction in which 
it had begun. Perhaps Jesus propounded a question 
something like this: What did "Moses" (the Law) say 
about the truths which I have been teaching you ? What 
would "Elijah" (the Prophets) think about our work of 
ministry together ? What would these olden teachers 
say if they could know that the work which I am doing 
can have but one end, — my own rejection and death ? 

It was at this point that Jesus broke to His dearest 
friends the news for which He had again led them into 
solitude. The attitude of His own city toward Him had 
removed all doubt from His mind as to what further was 
in store for Him from His enemies. If they had im- 
proved even His absence further to embitter His neigh- 
bors against Him, at what would they stop when He 
should present His message to the nation at Jerusalem? 
He therefore plainly told the Twelve that He was plan- 
ning to go to Jerusalem, but that He had no expectation 
but that His enemies would meet His coming with the 
endeavor to kill Him, and in this He believed that they 
would be successful. 

Jesus, however, would not leave His friends under this 
shock of surprise without some relief. "But," He added 
immediately, "some of you who stand here will certainly 
not die until you have seen God's Kingdom come into 
power." 

It was at this point that the impetuous Peter exclaimed, 
"God forbid. Master! This shall never be your fate," 

142 



JESUS FORETELLS HIS DEATH 



143 



Weakness of soul is not to be borne even from one's 
stanchest friends. Jesus swung Peter's hand from his 
shoulder and, turning, flashed upon him this sentence, 
Out of My way, tempter ! Now you are a stumbling- 
stone to Me. You look at things in man's way, not in 
God's." Then he turned to the others and said sternly, 
"If a man wishes to go always where I go, he must deny 
self and take up his cross every day and follow Me." 




(From a photograph.) 
Mount Hermon, the Probable Scene of the Transfiguration. 



The word "cross" is now the hallowed symbol of our 
religion. Then it was the punishment used only by the 
Roman tyrants for the most shameful crimes. This ter- 
rible sentence was as if Jesus had said, "If you follow 
Me you must walk behind Me on the way to the gallows." 

It was in preparation for such a future that Jesus left 
nine of the Twelve in a village at the foot of the mountain, 
and took Peter and John and James with Him to climb 
up its lonely sides alone. These three were not only 
closest to Him, but they were the strongest of them all. 
Peter, as we have seen, He had named "The man of 
rock." His nickname for the two brothers was "Sons 
Df thunder." These phrases of appreciation show how 
He valued them. 

Leaving the vineyards in the foot-hills they passed 
many shrines to Pan and other Roman and Grecian gods, 



144 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

that peeped from the ravines, that crowned the crests, 
and crossed the snow- worn curve beneath the lofty peaks 
above. It was late autumn and the country below was 
as golden as the halls of Heaven. 

When night fell the four strong climbers had ascended 
far into the heights, and they ate their supper beside some 
icy brook that gushed from the snow-line just above. 
The unaccustomed air made them drowsy, and soon the 
three fishermen were rolled up in their heavy sheepskin 
cloaks beside the camp-fire and were at once asleep. 

During this night there came to Jesus the greatest 
spiritual experience of His life. While He was praying, 
it entered into and glorified His communion. The words 
which describe it were like those which describe the 
temptations, figurative, for, as the Gospel of Matthew 
tells us, it was a vision. Probably the words have come 
to us from the lips of Jesus Himself. 

During the desert temptations you remember that 
three voices spoke to Jesus. So it was in the spiritual 
trial upon the mountain. 

The first voice which He heard was that of the Law 
and Prophets. These were personified to the Jews by 
Moses and Elijah. Malachi, the latest of the prophets, 
had said that they were both to reappear before the com- 
ing of "the day of the Lord." What had they to say 
about the death of the Messiah? First, it seemed to 
Jesus, Moses spoke, reminding Him how his whole life 
long he himself had waged war with the seen on the side 
of the unseen, when his whole people were faithless be- 
cause of discouragement. Then Elijah spoke for the 
later prophets, to say that, while at times they seemed 
to tell of a visible victory by the Messiah, there was a 
deeper voice which told of One who was to be "despised 
and rejected of men." The prince who had gone down to 
lead up a nation of slaves and the prophet who had given 
his strength to a thankless people were witnesses to the 
glory of a life of unappreciated love. The man who had 
passed from earth by the kiss of God, and the one who 




opyright by Underwood & Underwood. 

OLD GATE TO C^ESAREA PHILIPPI, AT THE FOOT OF 
MT. HERMON, PALESTINE. 



JESUS' VISION ON THE MOUNTAIN 145 



had gone up in a chariot of fire could tell Him that death 
was nothing to be feared. The two patriots who had not 
failed to find successors, the one in the commander Joshua, 
and the other in the healer Elisha, could tell Him that such 
lives as theirs and His could not finally perish. Thus the 
message of the past inspired the courage of Jesus. 

The second voice was present and a human one. He 
seemed to hear Simon Peter, 
who was heavy with sleep, 
saying something about build- 
ing some mountain shepherd 
huts, so that these two guests 
of His vision might remain, as 
if He and they might expect 
to live forever in the mere 
dream of being heroic. That 
was, no doubt, the mood of all 
those who loved Him, but 
His time was now come; He 
could no longer tarry in the 
places where life was safe and 
beautiful. 

Into the silence that followed 
there fell a third, a still, small 
voice, as if from the watching 
stars. It was the voice of the 

Father: "This is my beloved Son, who pleases me so 
well." Before the challenge of that divine confidence 
could the Master linger longer upon the mountain ? 

He awakened His three friends, and together they 
went down, facing the sunrise. 

When Peter and James and John awoke, Jesus with 
glowing face told them the vision-parable and explained 
it to them. There was enough of the heroic in these three 
so that they could at least catch a glimpse of the possi- 
bility of a life so brave that it would not shrink from 
death, in the path of duty. They saw Jesus in a new 
light, transfigured. For them thereafter the Law and 




Head of Elijah. 

From the Copley Print of Sargent's 
"Frieze of the Prophets" in the Boston 
Public Library. (Copyright, 1898, by Cur- 
tis and Cameron.) 



146 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

the Prophets might vanish; "they saw no one, save Jesus 
only." 

At the foot of the mountain, perhaps by the bridge at 
the city gate, Jesus and His three companions met a 
jeering crowd gathered around a helpless boy, whom 
their other comrades who had remained below had tried 
in vain to relieve. It was a sharp contrast to their eyes 
that had just been dazzled by a heavenly vision, but to 
us it seems an even more glorious thing to remember how 
patiently Jesus bent down among His limp-hearted dis- 
ciples and cured the young sufferer. "For the valley, 
not the mountain, is man's home, but the brook that gives 
man drink in the valley has its source on the mountains." 

Years later, when the death of Jesus had come, and 
when they faced danger and death themselves, they were 
comforted many times by what one of the letters which 
bears the name of Peter called "the Voice from Heaven, 
when we were with him in the Holy Mount." That 
Voice, to which Jesus had listened all His life, had said 
"This is my beloved Son, who pleases me so well. Liste 
to him." 

The life and words of Jesus gave them strength to follow 
Him, in "loving not their lives even unto death." 



it 



CHAPTER XXV 
JESUS TAKING THE HARDER ROAD 

What was the situation in which Jesus found Himself 
after coming down from the mountain ? He was facing 
manifold difficulties. He had rejected the idea of becoming 
a revolutionary leader. He would not disown His mission 
and go back to live as a carpenter. He was so true to 
His race that He had overcome the temptation to carry 
His message to Syria, to Greece or to Rome. His plain 
duty was to go up to Jerusalem and present as clearly as 
possible the teachings of the Kingdom. Here, at the 
very centre of the Pharisaic party and the headquarters 
of the priests and the courtiers of Herod, there was 
manifest danger. Jesus had yet to discover whether 
the broader-minded Jews who, in that great city, had 
felt the Roman and Grecian influence and were restless 
under the tyranny of the Pharisees and priests, would 
welcome the freedom which His message offered. Un- 
certain though the result was and suggestive of failure, it 
was this perilous and heroic venture to which He was 
commissioned by the Father. 

The key-note of the next six months in the life of Jesus 
is not so much that of tragedy as of commonplace. In 
this His career resembled that of John the Baptist. John 
had had first his period of popularity, and finally his 
martyrdom. Between came the dreary months of im- 
prisonment. So this period in Jesus' life might be called 
The Period of the Second Choice." 

The first ambition of Jesus had been to develop a relig- 
ious commonwealth in Galilee. He could have wished to 
have the idyllic life of His earliest ministry indefinitely 
continued, with enthusiastic crowds, feasts and flowers, 

147 



148 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



and a hearty welcome everywhere. Naturally He desired 
the unhesitating devotion of His twelve disciples; a 
better understanding with His own family; the social 
success of His miracles, leading to a wider power, shared 
by His disciples and extending to the alleviation of suffer- 
ing generally; and finally the leavening of Jerusalem, 
the national centre, by His teaching. 

Jesus now had to make a second choice. He was dis- 
appointed by the nation's failure to respond. The last 
opportunity for a religious or social movement in the Jew- 
ish nation, to which all their history had pointed, was to 

be neglected. He dis- 
covered that they had 
no spiritual readiness. 
They were like prisoners 
whose leader had found 
a way to escape, but 
who preferred to sit 
timidly in their bond- 
age. The Kin g - 
dom which He had said 
was "at hand" seemed 
destined to postpone- 
ment without a date. 
He was wounded by the ingratitude of those He healed 
and those He taught. There are suggestions that there 
had begun a fading of His miracle-power, due to the lessen- 
ing of a co-operative trust in Him. The daily presence 
of Judas brought the constant influence of a growing 
treachery. His was a continually narrowing path. 
Once He had controlled events; hereafter events con- 
trolled Him. With no leisure, no opportunity for quiet 
meditation, He was henceforth hurried on, whether He 
would or no. It grew plainer that He must depend upon 
others to finish the work He had begun, others apparently 
poorly fitted to the great task. With no indolence nor 
mistake on His own part, the interest which He had 
aroused seemed slowly ebbing away. With "the half of 




Ruins of a Synagogue in Northern 
Galilee. 



HIGHER DEMANDS OF DISCIPLESHIP 149 

a broken hope for a pillow at night" Jesus had to rebuild 
His whole life in six months. 

There were special burdens which weighed upon His 
heart. The electric response of the throng was no longer 
felt. Jesus had no home. Not only did His kinsmen 
misunderstand Him, but He had, for the Kingdom's sake, 
renounced marriage, the universal lot of the Jew, the 
helpful intimacy of a tender and understanding help- 
meet and the sweet sanctities of a household of His own. 

From this time on Jesus insisted more and more on 
whole-hearted surrender to His teaching by those who 
professed discipleship. He evidently realized that He 
could not win a large number of Jews to accept the 
Kingdom of God and that He would have to depend upon 
a few loyal disciples who would carry the work forward 
after His death. To a scribe of the Pharisees who came 
desiring to be a disciple, Jesus gave the challenging state- 
ment that while foxes have holes and birds of the air have 
nests, the Son of man was utterly homeless. When an- 
other professed himself willing to follow, after the long 
service of lamentations for his dead father were finished, 
Jesus said, ' ' Let the dead bury their dead, but you go and 
preach the Kingdom of God." When still a third was 
willing to be a disciple, after he had said good-by to his 
friends at home, Jesus reminded him that these farewells 
often weakened the courage of a disciple, and that those 
who would follow Him must do so directly and without 
looking backward. These divisions, He said on another 
occasion, were more than mere earthly partings. They 
were sharp differences of belief and purpose between 
those who had been dearest friends. "From henceforth 
there shall be five in one house divided — three against 
two, and two against three. The father shall be divided 
against the son; the son against the father; the mother 
against the daughter; and the daughter against the 
mother." 

To all who at this time were impressed by His message 
He told the carpenter's story of the man who started to 



150 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



build a tower without counting the cost to see whether 
he would be able to finish it. 

And yet, even when He was demanding the utmost 
consecration of the men and women who would follow 
Him, He showed a deeper tenderness toward individuals 
than ever before. Were His friends to plunge into danger ? 
Jesus said, "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, 
and not one of them is forgotten before God, but even 
the very hairs of your head are numbered. Fear not, 
therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows." 
^ At this time are we told of His taking children into His 

arms and blessing them, 
and the world has never 
forgotten the picture of 
Jesus surrounded by 
eager mothers, who be- 
lieved the benediction of 
the great teacher was 
magical, and by crowds 
of happy children, while 
His own disciples, not 
understanding why He 
should pay any atten- 
tion to these who seemed 
to them of little account, stood darkly in the background. 
The Gospel according to Luke gives us at this time that 
great chapter, in which Jesus spoke what have been 
called "The three parables of grace," — the story of the 
sheep that was lost because of its wildness of heart; the 
story of the coin that was lost because it was not put to 
use; and the story of the boy who was lost because he 
drifted without sense or purpose away from his father's 
goodness. This spirit of graciousness showed itself at 
this time in His attitude toward those whom His disciples 
thought to be His enemies. A man was attempting to 
imitate the work of Jesus in relieving the possessed, with- 
out acknowledging Jesus as his master. "Forbid him 
not," said Jesus kindly, "he that is not against us, is on 




Fords of the Jordan. 



JESUS' DEEPER FEELING 151 

our side." It may be that at this time, in answer to 
Peter's question as to how often he should forgive his 
enemies, the Master told the striking story of the steward 
who refused to forgive his fellow servant a trifling debt 
of twenty dollars, after he himself had been forgiven by 
his lord of an unpayable obligation of twelve million 
dollars. More than once, too, do we get glimpses of the 
deeper feeling which came to His own brave heart as He 
began to draw near the goal of His life's work. "I have a 
work to do," He once said, "and how am I distressed 
until I accomplish it !" 

We, too, sometimes have to accept a second choice in 
securing an education, in making a home, in finding a 
calling. Many of us must accept the second instead of the 
first wish of our hearts. God often uses our second choice 
to fulfil His own will. It was so with Jesus. The delay 
of success to the Kingdom caused it to become more 
substantial. Its rejection by the Jews made it world- 
wide. If Jesus had won a temporal success, the world 
would have been lost. We cannot conceive a life of Jesus 
without a cross, if that life were to transform the world. 



CHAPTER XXVI 



A PRELIMINARY VISIT TO JERUSALEM 

Scholars are divided as to the exact course of Jesus' 
journey after He left Galilee for the last time. If we had 
only the three earlier evangelists, we might suppose that 
Jesus went directly and publicly from Caesarea Philippi 

to His death at Jerusalem. 
But the Fourth Gospel tells 
us that Jesus went up secretly 
upon a preliminary visit to 
Jerusalem, and then retreated 
to Perea and Samaria. This 
seems reasonable. Before 
presenting Himself to the 
nation as its Messiah, sur- 
rounded by His believers, He 
would find it helpful to dis- 
cover the exact situation in 
the capital. It was a danger- 
ous step to take, but a neces- 
sary one. Going up to one of 
the minor feasts, when the 
city was not thronged with 
strangers, Jesus could enter the city before the Pharisees 
had known that He was coming or had succeeded in 
organizing to capture Him. There, in one of the colon- 
nades of the temple, which was -open as an assemblage 
place and even for informal conferences, He could teach 
the people who chanced to gather about Him, as He had 
those who met Him in the village squares in Galilee. 

It is noticeable in the accounts that have come down 
to us of these later teachings of Jesus, whether uttered in 
Jerusalem or not, that He seems to place a new emphasis 

152 




The Golden Gate, Jerusalem. 
This gate is now walled up. 



JESUS' NEW EMPHASIS 



153 



upon Himself. When Napoleon, fresh returned from his 
victories across the Alps, urged his election by the people 
as Emperor, he had already crowded Paris with his sol- 
diers. When nobler Csesar came home again from his 
successes against Pompey, he won the heart of Rome by 
four magnificent triumphs, commemorating his victories 
in Gaul, Egypt, Pontus and Africa. But when Jesus 
came to claim the allegiance of His nation, He offered it 
nothing but Himself. ... 

How did Jesus think .. J^feH V~ JSm 

of Himself at this time ? Wk(W h^ ,-^^^mJ 

Hitherto Jesus had most 
commonly spoken of 
Himself as "the Son of 
man." This phrase 
seems originally to have 
meant, "Son of Adam" 
or "of the dust," mean- 
ing merely a feeble hu- 
man creature. In the 
prophecy of Ezekiel the 
phrase had been used 
many times to describe such an one who had been honored 
by God in being made a prophet. In the Book of Daniel 
the Son of man was described as the angelic being who 
was to inaugurate the visible Kingdom of God. The 
phrase, as Jesus used it, seems to have been chosen as one 
avoiding the making of any special pretension, but as 
suggesting that He was like His brothers, except as God 
had conferred upon Him prophetic power and a glorious 
mission. In the Fourth Gospel, in which a loving student 
of Jesus at the end of the first century endeavored to inter- 
pret Him, this conception is stated over and over. Jesus 
says of Himself at this very time, "of myself I can do 
nothing"; "I seek not my own glory, but the glory of 
him that sent me"; "my words are not of myself, but I 
speak as the Father has taught me." And Jesus said 
further of His own limitations, that He knew not the time 




A Street in Jerusalem. 



154 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

when His Kingdom was to come in triumph, and it was 
not for Him to assign its offices of honor. 

But Jesus had now, as we have seen, acknowledged 
Himself as the Messiah of the Jews. This thought was 
not inconsistent with the first, but joined directly upon 
it. The Messiah, as the prophets thought of Him, was a 
man whom God was to send for His people's sake to save 
them. Glorified by God, He was to fulfil the noblest 
national offices: He was to be king, priest, judge and 
prophet. And these, in a better and spiritual sense, 
Jesus believed Himself to be. He was a king, because He 
ruled in the heart of those who believed in him. He was 
a priest, because He was bringing men to God. He was 
judge, because His discriminations were true. He was a 
prophet, because as Dr. Robert E. Speer beautifully says, 
"Not only was Jesus the master prophet, but He was the 
great Prophecy." What He was His friends might be- 
come. 

There was a greater and earlier conception of Himself 
in Jesus' mind, which we have seen was there from His 
boyhood. He thought of Himself as "Son of God." 
To Him this was His life's greatest discovery. We saw 
Him in His twelfth year deciding to enter upon His 
Father's business. At His baptism the fulness of sonship 
was conferred, like knighthood, upon Him. Every temp- 
tation in the desert tended to cause Him to disown His 
belief in His divine sonship. The message from the 
Father upon the mountain had reassured Him that He 
was still the beloved Son of His Father. 

This thought that He was Son of God bound together 
His work as Son of man and as Messiah. One may make 
this plain by a simple illustration. A man walking down 
a country road comes at a turn upon a wayside rose- 
bush. Here is the lowly, thorny shrub, and upon it the 
dainty, fragrant blossoms. "What is the source of this 
beauty ?" the traveller asks, as he looks upon the humble 
plant and the meagre soil beneath it. Just then the sun 
breaks through a cloud and the sunlight glorifies the bios- 









GOD'S SPOKESMAN 155 



the beauty of the flower!" So, behind the humble 
service of the Son of man, and explaining the glory of His 
work as the Messiah, was the Light from Above. Be- 
cause He fully recognized that He was Son of God, He 
was willing to be Son of man and was able to be the 
world's Messiah. 

What Jesus believed about Himself is important just 
here because it explains His latest teachings. He accepted 
His sonship to God in all of its fulness and possible mean- 
ing. He told His listeners at Jerusalem and elsewhere 
that He was God's spokesman. ''My words shall never 
pass away." He felt that men could not get along with- 
out Him. "No man knows the Father but the Son, and 
he to whom the Son wills to reveal him. " "I can satisfy, ' ' 
was what in one phrase or another He was continually 
saying. And in some way, as we shall see more clearly 
later, He was sure that the future of the Kingdom which 
He was establishing was to be bound up with His own 
person. He was sure that He must go away. "But," 
He began to say, "I shall return again." 

Toward the last, Jesus taught more about Himself 
than about His Kingdom. He did this because His 
message, as His days grew short, became increasingly a 
personal and individual one. He was anxious to make 
others realize their sonship as He did Himself. As the 
Fourth Gospel has it, "that they might be one with the 
Father, even as he was." 

And His work in Jerusalem was not in vain. The 
Jerusalemites were more learned and cultured than the 
people of Galilee. Many of the multitude believed on 
Him, others waited, wondering that the Pharisees did not 
acknowledge His claims, and a few even of the Sanhedrin 
secretly accepted Him as Messiah. Among these was 
one Nicodemus, whose wonderful secret dialogue with 
Jesus is briefly recorded in the third chapter of John. 

Twice at least, according to John's Gospel, disorganized 
companies of the Pharisaic party in Jerusalem attempted 



156 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

to stone Jesus. The chief priests and Pharisees also 
authorized the temple guard to arrest Him. When they 
had not done so and were called to account, these Jewish 
guards stated the extraordinary impression which Jesus 
made upon them, by which He had so aroused their 
religious interest as to make them forget their police 
duty, when they exclaimed, "Never man spake like this 
man!" 

Scornfully one of the leaders of the Pharisees voiced 
their impatience when he answered, "Have any of the 
rulers or of us Pharisees believed on Him yet ? This 
rabble which does not understand the Torah is cursed, 
anyhow." 

Just then rose an unexpected voice from their own 
number. Nicodemus, the Pharisee and member of the 
Sanhedrin, who had personally talked with Jesus and 
learned what the heart of His message was, raised this 
fair question, "Does our Torah judge a man, unless it 
has heard what he says and knows what he is doing ?" 

But the same intolerant objector replied, "You are one 
of this Galilean party, then ? Look in the Torah, and you 
will find that no prophet is going to come out of Galilee." 

Jesus was forced to retreat from Jerusalem, and He 
found shelter beyond Jordan. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
IN PEREA AND SAMARIA 

Jesus once said, quoting an old saying in bitter pathos, 
"A prophet surely has a just claim to die inside Jeru- 
salem." Originally the proverb referred to the intoler- 
ance of Jerusalem and her constant persecution of her 
great prophets, but Jesus had in mind especially the fact 
that if He were to be done to death by His enemies, it 
were better that He had died in the Holy City after He 
had stated His full message and where His death should 
have the fullest influence in causing it to be remembered. 
It was therefore Jesus' concern that He should not 
be caught unawares in the country. After He had fully 
trained the Twelve in solitude and in safety, He knew that 
the proclamation of His mission in the capital was in- 
evitable, though it might be fatal to Himself. While 
we cannot trace His footsteps in detail, the evangelists 
tell us over and over of Jesus spending much of His time 
during the last few months of His life in Perea, that 
southeastern portion of Palestine, east of. the Jordan, 
which was yoked together with Galilee under the rule 
of Herod Antipas, in the remote regions of Judea associated 
into the last days of John the Baptist's work, and in 
Samaria. While Herod was already taking notice of 
Jesus and realizing the possible danger of allowing Him 
to be free, Perea was sparsely settled, and it was not 
difficult, by moving rapidly from point to point, to keep 
out of Herod's reach. In Samaria, which was governed 
by Pontius Pilate, Jesus would be comparatively safe 
because, on account of the Jewish contempt for the 
Samaritans, the Pharisees would neglect Him. 

Luke tells us that at this time Jesus summoned a larger 

157 



158 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



number of disciples, perhaps seventy in all (a number equal 
to that of the translators of the Old Testament and of 
the Sanhedrin, the religious supreme court of the Jews) 
and that He sent them out two by two, as He had the 
twelve disciples, to the places whither He Himself was 
about to come. To these villages of the despised Samari- 
tans and the neglected Pereans across the Jordan He told 
them to go with haste, assuring them that Capernaum 
and Bethsaida and the other cities of His own province, 
which had rejected Him, had lost the priceless oppor- 
tunity that was now in store 
for all who would receive Him. 
In giving them their mission 
we are told that He offered a 
prayer of thanksgiving, rejoic- 
ing that if "the wise and un- 
derstanding" should remain 
blind, these "babes" should 
have the opportunity to hear 
the good news. 

Everything that we know 
about the work of Jesus 
among these peoples increases 
our admiration for His gener- 
ous spirit. It was perhaps to 
them that He told the immor- 
tal story of "The Good Samaritan," in which He showed 
how, after priest and Levite had neglected the oppor- 
tunity for brotherhood, the despised Samaritan proved 
himself to be a true neighbor. To them also He told of 
the laborers who, though called last into the vineyard, 
were because of their readiness equally rewarded by the 
owner with the first, and of the great supper, which those 
out in the highways and hedges enjoyed after the invita- 
tion had been rejected by the neighbors of the host. In 
the incident of the ten lepers, told at this time and sup- 
posed by some scholars to have been a parable originally, 
the one healed man who was grateful was a Samaritan. 





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Copyright by the Curtis Publishing Co. 

"SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME; FOR 

OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." 

From a painting by W. L. Taylor. 



THE MISSION OF THE SEVENTY 



159 



Luke tells us that it was to these Pereans that Jesus 
told the story of "The Ninety-Nine" and the story of 
"The Prodigal Son." Most typical, however, of all the 
teachings of this time was the story of ' ' The Pharisee and 
the Publican," in which Jesus descended from general 
statements to show that God's love reaches over barriers 
of caste, and gave this double portrait of the self-righteous 
individual who loses God and of the humble, sinful peni- 
tent who finds Him. It was now, according to Luke too, 
that Jesus first taught the 
Lord's Prayer. 

As beautiful as was the 
spirit with which Jesus 
lived and worked among 
these neglected races was 
the response that came 
to Him from some whom 
He met. It seemed as if 
never did the few who 
received His word believe 
in Him so deeply as now. 
Possibly at this time, 
rather than earlier, came 
the wonderful dialogue with the Samaritan woman at the 
well, recorded in John. It was during this journey, as we 
have said, that particular mention is made of His being 
surrounded by the eager faces of children. It was now 
that He found His second and last home with the friends 
in Bethany, of whom one comforted Him by her house- 
wifely attentions, and the other by Her eager acceptance 
of His teaching. 

Just now, when it was evident that to become a com- 
panion of Jesus meant peril, the only man of wealth and 
rank who was ever associated closely with Jesus came and 
asked humbly the way to inherit eternal life. This 
story is so full of meaning that we need to stop to under- 
stand it. It does not seem fair that so fine a youth should 
be barred out of the Kingdom of Heaven because he was 





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Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler. 



160 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

rich. But Jesus thought of the righteous society that He 
was establishing, and He realized that if the man kept his 
money, the others would have felt jealously that he was 
in a class by himself. If Jesus had shown him particular 
favor, his motives would have been suspected. Even 
if the man had divided his property with the others, 
this would only have attracted selfish men and would 
have paralyzed the influence of Jesus among the poor. 
As one of our own recent scholars interprets it — ' ' This was 
not a matter between the man and God, but between the 
man and God and the people." The young rich man 
probably did not come to Jesus when He was alone, but 
when He was surrounded by His disciples and a crowd 
of the plain people of the neighborhood. It was impossible 
for a youth, constituted as he was, to join such a company 
as this without sacrificing his money. No wonder that 
Jesus loved him, if he was willing to volunteer at such a 
time as this. No wonder also that it was hard for the 
youth to make the sacrifice which such an enlistment re- 
quired. Though sorrowful, yet he went away from Jesus, 
and made the great refusal. 

Four times the Gospels reiterate that Jesus pressed 
steadily on toward Jerusalem. Mark says: "Jesus was 
going before them: and they were amazed; and they that 
followed were afraid." The earnestness of His determi- 
nation called forth both their wonder and their awe. His 
buoyant anticipation hastened their own footsteps to fol- 
low His. We wish we knew more of those expectant 
moments when the full vitality of Jesus' splendid faith 
must have expressed itself in clearer statements as to the 
great venture for the Kingdom which He was to undertake 
and as to the deeper meaning which lay the other side of 
the reception which He should meet at Jerusalem. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 



GOING UP TO JERUSALEM 

From this time forward, say the Gospels, Jesus was 
continually surrounded by a multitude of His disciples. 
The national festival seems to have been the occasion 
for the gathering of those who believed in Him. The 
fact that Jesus had been rejected by the people of His 
own province and by the Samaritans might cause us 
to suppose that He was entirely without followers except 
the Twelve. On the contrary, Paul (i Cor. 16:6) tells 

that even after His 
death several hundred 
men and women 
were found who were 
true to Him. Many of 
these came from Galilee, 
some from Samaria and 
Perea, and a few possi- 
bly from the regions to 
the North. They were 
a mixed company, not 
held together by com- 
mon bonds of acquain- 
tance or training; but for a time, at least, with Jesus as 
their centre, they presented the appearance of unity. 

Amid the turmoil of this crowd Jesus preserved His 
inner calm. The last three events recorded at His de- 
parture from Perea show Him to us never more like 
Himself. These three acts were the blessing of the 
children, the placing before the rich young man of 
the higher conditions of the Kingdom, and His brave 
message to Herod who was threatening to kill Him. 

161 




On the Road from Jerusalem to Jericho. 



162 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



Jesus was now near Jericho, the boundary city be- 
tween Palestine and Moab, whence the road turns to 
climb up through the desert toward Jerusalem. At 
this juncture occurred one of the most pitiful events in 
the career of Jesus. John and James, the brothers for 
whom He felt the highest trust and love, came to Him 
one morning when He was alone, with their mother, 
who was also one of those good women who had been 




The Jordan Valley, Near Jericho. 



(From a photograph.) 



helping Him in Galilee. With unusual respect they bowed 
before Him as if He were a king. 

"What do you wish, madam?" He asked Salome 
courteously. 

"Sir," she said, boldly, "I want you to do for us what- 
ever we ask you." 

"What is it you want me to do for you ?" 

"I want you to say that in your Kingdom these two 
sons of mine shall sit as viceroys, one of them on your 
right side and the other on your left." 

What could be more saddening than this complete 
misunderstanding of His work, after the experience of 
these brothers in Caesarea and upon the mountain top ? 

"You do not know what you are asking," Jesus re- 
sponded warmly, turning to the brothers. "Are you 
fit to drink the cup that I have to drink ?" 

"Yes !" the two young men shouted, "we can." 






JESUS' EXPLANATION TO PETER 163 

"You shall indeed drink my cup," said Jesus sadly, 
thinking of the sufferings they should bear for Him, "but 
as to the seat — that is not mine to give. It belongs to 
those to whom it has been assigned by my Father." 

It was of course difficult for Jesus constantly to use 
the term "the Kingdom," as He did in order to connect 
Himself with the dearest hope of His race, without being 
misunderstood. He sought, in common with all His 
people, a state of social righteousness. They hoped to 
have it suddenly by the interposition of their Messiah. 
Jesus expected it to come slowly and gradually as the 
result of active and humble endeavor. He once made 
the distinction clear to Simon Peter, His most loyal 
friend. The incident is related only in Matthew, and is 
placed during the hurried last visit to Capernaum, 
when Jesus was closing His affairs, to withdraw forever 
from His native province. The story has a touch of 
gentle humor. 

The tax-collector, who possibly had taken the place of 
Matthew, His disciple, came to Jesus and Peter to de- 
mand the poll-tax which was required of all adults, and 
which, though used to sustain the temple, was payable 
to "the kings of the land." 

Jesus, as we shall see more clearly later, probably did 
not offer sacrifice, and so perhaps might have claimed 
exemption for that reason. 

"How does this seem to you, Simon ? " He asked whim- 
sically. "From whom do the kings of the land receive 
tribute, from their sons or from strangers ? ' ' 

"From strangers," replied Simon. 

"Then we sons are free," said Jesus. 

The meaning was this: We are the sons of the new 
Kingdom that is to take the place of sacrifices and the 
temple. Why should we pay taxes to support that 
which we have outgrown ? 

"But," continued Jesus, "lest people should not under- 
stand how it seems to us, you go down to the lake and 
cast a hook. When you catch a fish you will find that 



164 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



it is good for a coin. Go and sell the fish, and pay your 
tax and mine." 

Not many days later Jesus made the great protest 
which began the movement that ere long abolished 
all the sacrificial system of the Jews. In the meantime 
and indeed long after that proclamation, it was the chief 
task of His disciples, not to engage in revolutionary acts, 
but in such humble tasks as fishing, and while earning 
their daily bread, both to inculcate the spirit that is 
above formalism and to await patiently the time when 

the freedom of the King- 
dom was ready to be 
established. 

Again — and the Gos- 
pels place this also in 
the home of Jesus just 
before He departed from 
it — Jesus illustrated the 
fact that the Kingdom 
of Heaven is not a place 
for personal ambition 
and struggle for pre- 
eminence. 

"What were you talking about to-day on the road ?" 
He asked them. Everybody was abashed, for they had, 
as Jesus overheard, been eagerly discussing which of 
them would occupy the two high places which James and 
John were coveting. 

Just then a neighbor's little child came running in and 
Jesus called him and took him up in His lap and put His 
arms around him. 

"In the Kingdom of Heaven," said Jesus quietly, 
"the man who wants to be foremost is lowest of all. Un- 
less you turn yourselves about and become as little chil- 
dren (in their trustful helpfulness) you will not get into 
the Kingdom at all." 

And as He gave the child back to his mother who came 
for him, He said, "Whosoever shall receive one of such 




The Traditional House of ZACCHiEUS. 



THE ISOLATION OF JESUS 



165 



little children in my name, receiveth me; and whosoever 
receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me." Is it not 
possible that Jesus spoke these words to the mother, and 
that He meant something like this: " Whoever takes one 
little child and trains him for my sake, is my disciple, 
and my disciples are the disciples of him who sent me." 
It would be both deeply Jewish and truly Christian for 
Jesus thus to put the badge of honor upon faithful fathers 
and mothers. 

Though surrounded by the multitude, Jesus was really 
alone. His Twelve were true, but just now even the best 




The Road from Jerusalem to Jericho. 

two had shown that they understood Him no more than 
children, and that they were thoroughly selfish. On the 
other hand, they at least trusted Him, and so far as they 
knew how tried to follow His way. 

There is evidence in the Fourth Gospel that by the 
time of Jesus' private visit to Jerusalem, His brothers by 
blood had come to realize that He was not insane and, 
even if they did not believe in His spiritual mission, they 
assumed a friendly attitude and made suggestions, 
kindly if not wise, for the success of His work. They 
had not kept close enough to the situation to realize the 
peril of a public appearance before He was ready for the 
full and final proclamation of the Kingdom, and so they 
tried to persuade Him then to show Himself to the world. 



166 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



"My opportunity," said Jesus, "has not come. Yours 
is always ready, for the world does not hate you. You 
go to the feast. I will follow soon." It was a little 
saddening to feel that, when His own brothers were dis- 
posed to be friendly, their past misunderstanding was 
the very barrier which deprived Him of their company 
at the time when it would have been most comforting. 

Jesus at this time seemed to feel a special yearning 
toward the Twelve who had been true to Him so long. 
One day when He was speaking of the difficulty which 




Bethany. 



(From a photograph.) 



The hill on the right is the Mount of Olives. The tall ruins at the left are said to mark the home 
of Lazarus. 

rich men felt in entering the Kingdom, Peter reminded 
Him of the sacrifices which he and his companions had 
made. "Yes," answered Jesus quickly, "you have left 
homes and kindred, children and lands for my sake and 
the Gospel's, but you shall have a hundredfold now, and 
in the world to come eternal life." And again, think- 
ing of the many solitary hours which they had spent with 
Him discussing the deep things of life, He said lovingly 
to them, "You are the ones who have continued with me 
in my temptations, and the Kingdom is appointed unto 
-you, even as the Father has appointed it unto me." 

On the way up to Jerusalem two events occurred which 
comforted the soul of Jesus before His great trial. A 
blind beggar believed in Him and understood Him. A 



THE REST AT BETHANY 167 

rich, despised tax-gatherer, a little fellow named Zac- 
chaeus, was so touched by Jesus' proffer of friendship 
that, repentant, he determined to restore his ill-gotten 
gains and divide them among the poor. Jesus smilingly 
did every honor possible to the man whose soul was so 
much greater than his stature. 

Just over the hill from Jerusalem is the village of 
Bethany, where Jesus had found a foster home and choice 
souls who understood Him. To this quiet shelter, away 
from the constant pressure of the crowd, Jesus directed 
His steps, in order to win refreshment before the eventful 
week of the Passover. 



CHAPTER XXIX 
JESUS' ARRIVAL AT JERUSALEM 

Jesus could not detach Himself from the eager multi- 
tude which had surrounded Him ever since He left Perea. 
Up through the wilderness of Judea, past the scenes of 
the education of John the Baptist, and along the thief - 
infested road mentioned in His own story of "The Good 
Samaritan," Jesus led the multitude. It was a hard and 
dreary journey, and pleasant indeed it must have been 
when He arrived among the gardens and olive-trees of 
Bethany. Here, on the last Sabbath of His life, He was 
the guest of a man named Simon, and in his house 
occurred that gracious act of impulsive love, the anointing 
of Jesus by Mary, which Jesus accepted as the uncon- 
scious anticipation of His burial. 

The next morning Jesus entered Jerusalem. He 
could not well avoid making this a public occasion. 
Already both His friends and His enemies in the city were 
expecting His coming. The multitude, who had been 
camping upon the hill slopes around Bethany, would not 
leave Him to go alone. Jesus consented to this public 
arrival, not for Himself, but as a method by which He 
might most strongly present to Jerusalem the one pur- 
pose of His life, — the Kingdom of Heaven. Once His 
work could be quiet, gradual, careful; now, in order to 
attract the city's attention He must act forcibly, even 
dramatically. Jerusalem was the centre of His enemies, 
the Pharisees. If enough of the populace had become 
interested, or could be made interested in His message, 
there would be time for Him to teach, even in Jerusalem, 
the laws of His Kingdom. If the people failed Him this 
hope must be disappointed. 

168 



THE APPROACH TO THE CITY 



1G9 



We can now see the wisdom of the thoughtful plan 
which Jesus used in order to offer Himself to Jerusalem, 
in a way least likely to be misunderstood. As the centre 
of popular interest, it was appropriate that He should 
ride to the city gates. He did not choose a horse, which 
would at once have been recognized as the emblem of 
warfare, but He sent two of His disciples to a friend in 
Bethany and borrowed an ass, the common beast of 
burden, used, however, even by kings in times of peace. 
The significance was plain. Jesus came to Jerusalem, 




(From a photograph.) 
View on the Road from Jerusalem to Bethany. 
Jesus passed between these two places several times during the closing week of His life. 

not as a conqueror, but as a king of peace, who claimed 
and expected the loyalty of His own people. In a beauti- 
ful poem, embedded in the prophecy of Zechariah, there 
was the anticipation that a king of peace should thus, 
in future time, enter his capital. Jesus, no doubt, hoped 
that this old prophecy would be remembered. 

A company from the city had already come out to meet 
Him. Among them were probably friends whom He had 
made during His previous visit, a mixed throng of citi- 
zens, and a few Pharisees. These turned at the hilltop 
and formed the vanguard of His escort. Around and be- 
hind Jesus was the multitude which had accompanied Him 
up from the desert. Nearest to Him were the Twelve, 
and surrounding them were people from all parts of Pales- 



170 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



tine, most of them poor and from the country. In the 
midst, rode Jesus, dressed in His faded cloak, and the 
embodiment in speech and manner of the peasantry, 
despised by the silk-robed priests in Jerusalem. 

The evangelists remember various cries which were 
raised as the excitement grew, but all of them unmis- 
takably meant the recognition of Jesus as the nation's 
king. The great company also joined from time to time 
in singing a national anthem, whose martial strains were 
of the same import. A scene, similar to that when the 




The Mount of Olives from Jerusalem. 
Showing the temple area in the foreground and the roads over and around the Mount of Olives. 

multitude were fed beside the lake, was being enacted. 
The old anticipations were again aroused that Jesus 
would lead a revolt against the Romans. Jesus could 
not prevent this momentary misunderstanding, but He 
was able to control it. When the Pharisees called His 
attention to the fact that such outcries were likely to 
awake the attention of the Roman authorities and lead 
to bloodshed, Jesus realized how soon these acclamations 
would change to distrust, yet insisted that these genuine, 
though fickle feelings, should have sway. "Should 
these hold their peace, the very stones," He said, "would 
cry out." 

The southern roadway over the top of the Mount of 
Olives is hidden for a time by a hillock from the view of 



JESUS' LAMENTATION OVER THE CITY 171 

the city. Around a turn it comes out upon a natural 
platform, where suddenly the whole city is seen below. 
There, terrace on terrace, within the high and ancient 
walls of stone, rose houses, palaces, fortresses and public 
buildings, while in front of all, the gem of which the rest 
was but the setting, shone the Holy House beneath the 
splendor of the morning sun, a mass of snow and gold. 
Behind it was the surrounding circle of everlasting hills, 
and, lying beneath the multitude as it did, it seemed to 
them possible that their King and Messiah might now, 




Jerusalem, prom the Mount of Olives. 



(From a photograph.) 



by raising His hands, cause its walls to crumble that He 
might ride over them, or, as many of them expected, 
suddenly expand the Holy City by a miracle until it should 
cover all Judea. 

To the thoughtful mind a great city is always a terrible 
sight. Its needs, its sorrows, and its defilements are as 
visible as are its aspirations and its glory. The realiza- 
tion of the deeper needs of the great capital suddenly 
seized the mind of Jesus, and as Luke alone tells us, 
Jesus burst into momentary lamentation, feeling with a 
statesman's knowledge, how its restless spirit was cer- 
tain eventually to be crushed beneath the vindictive 
tyranny of Rome. But for the most part the ride of 
Jesus toward the city that day was one of mingled hope 



172 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

and joy. He could not be indifferent to the simple 
gladness of the men, women and children who threw palm 
branches, blossoms, and even garments in His pathway, 
and truly, as He recognized the awful perils before Him, 
He could not but cling to the hope that a sufficient num- 
ber of this enthusiastic escort would stand by His side to 
protect Him from the hatred of the Pharisees, and even 
to enable Him to rouse the spiritual soul of the city. 

In the meantime the city itself was full of turmoil. 
Some priests, gathered upon a portico roof of the temple, 
had noticed the unusual crowd which was both leaving 
and approaching the city so early in the Passover week. 
Perhaps one of them caught sight of Jesus, mounted, in 
the foreground, upon the ridge at the hilltop beside the 
descending roadway. "Look!" he exclaimed. "The 
whole world has gone after Him." The captain of the 
temple-watch sounded the "assembly" to his company, 
and the city garrison in the fort close by was posted in 
readiness for an uprising from within or a concerted attack 
from without the walls. No beast was allowed to enter 
the great city, and as Jesus dismounted and walked on 
foot through the gate beneath the massive wall, some of 
the soldiers who were posted over the gate asked curi- 
ously of the excited, but peaceful, mob below, "Who is 
this?" Enthusiastically came the reply, "It is the 
prophet, Jesus of Nazareth." Through the narrow 
lanes of the city followed close by the multitude, to which, 
no doubt, was added a curious throng from every house- 
door, Jesus entered in through the eastern gate of the 
temple into the court of the Jews, where the excited 
choir-boys echoed the song which they had just heard, 
and here at the very heart of Israel, hailed Him as their 
King. 






CHAPTER XXX 

JESUS' ATTACK UPON THE CORRUPT 
PRIESTS 

The Jewish temple, the successor of the simple tent of 
meeting, to which the Jews once brought the incense of 
their praise, was now the fortress of priestly privilege. 
In the court of the Gentiles, a large plaza, originally 
intended as a place where reverent foreigners might come 
and learn to love the Jewish faith, a market and fair 
had been set up. Annas, the high priest's father-in-law 
and the real ecclesiastical leader of the nation, had made 
an arrangement with Pontius Pilate, the Roman proc- 
urator, that the priests should have all the profit of 
this outrageous secular enterprise. The excuse was 
that the people otherwise would bring unclean and im- 
perfect offerings. The priests had gradually moved on 
from the custom of examining proposed sacrifices to the 
point where they would accept practically nothing but 
that which was bought in the temple market. The 
opportunity for extortion was plain, and it was fully 
utilized. At this period the common people brought 
a great many voluntary as well as prescribed offerings, 
and it was, of course, natural for the priests to encourage 
the multiplication of gifts to placate God or secure special 
benefits. For their sicknesses, their sorrows and their 
joys the people came bringing their gifts of cattle and 
grain. And the temple ministers were supported by this 
market, and the worship of Israel was built upon the 
foundation of graft. 

We get here a new and interesting light upon the char- 
acter of Jesus. Beneath the self-control we see revealed 
a heart of fire. It has been said that the finest test of 

173 



174 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



a man is what makes him indignant. This test Jesus 
magnificently met, for there is no nobler expression of 
anger than that against the abuse of the weak by the 
strong. We have already had other evidences of the 
ruggedness of Jesus' nature which we ought to remem- 
ber as we try to get a unified impression of Him. His 
strength had such various manifestations: in His self- 
effacement as a patient workman doing a humble duty, 
in His solitary conquest over the triple temptations of 




The Temple Area in the Time of Christ. 
(From Selous' picture of Jerusalem in its Grandeur.) 






young manhood, in His chivalry to sinners, in His mastery 
of His enraged neighbors at Nazareth, in His refusing a 
kingly crown, in facing His foes in Jerusalem by teaching 
in the holy place. We are about to see even grander 
expressions of His manhood in the midst of the tragedy 
which followed upon His declaration of war against the 
priestly tyrants who dominated Jerusalem. 

Jesus had, no doubt, recognized upon His previous 
visit that He must purge the holy place before He could 
do anything else. It is often so in a city which needs 
moral reform. One of the latest of the prophets had fore- 
told that the Messiah should come with suddenness to 
this temple, and a still later prophetic writing, not found 
in the Old Testament, called '"The Psalms of Solomon," 



THE ATTACK UPON PRIESTCRAFT 175 

had anticipated that the Messiah would cleanse Jeru- 
salem. Descending the steps from the court of the 
Jews, into the court of the Gentiles, solitary and alone, 
but watched with amazement by the throng which 
had followed Him into the temple, Jesus moved swiftly 
into the midst of the market, and seizing a handful of 
rushes from the floor, drove the confused marketmen and 
their cattle out of the enclosure and forbade the citizens 
of Jerusalem to use this open space as a thoroughfare for 
convenience in carrying their burdens across the city. 

This brave and striking action of Jesus was more than 
an attack upon priestly abuses. It was in principle an 
assault upon the system of sacrifice itself. Jesus' words 
on this occasion show that He reverenced the temple 
because God had planned that it should be "a house of 
prayer," rather than because animal sacrifices were offered 
therein. In the age-long controversy between the proph- 
ets and the priests, Jesus took the side of the prophets, 
the greatest men in Israel's history, who insisted that the 
reek of blood and the heaping up of grain were not 
pleasing to God, but that the only sacrifice which He de- 
sired was that of an humble and sincere heart. It is 
possible that He had long determined that at a fitting 
opportunity He would strike a blow at this outgrown 
institution, through which people paid penance of their 
possessions in place of the honest penitence of their hearts, 
and allowed themselves license for sinful deeds under the 
cover of their sacrificial offerings. 

It may have been at this time that He uttered that 
unforgettable sentence about the temple which was used 
against Him at His trial in a garbled form. Its original 
wording was probably somewhat as follows: ''This 
temple made with hands shall be destroyed. But an- 
other will soon arise made without hands." That is, 
this temple is doomed to destruction at the hands of the 
Romans. But temples, with their bloody sacrifices, are 
not essential to true religion; on the contrary, God is 
raising up a spiritual temple, not built with hands, the 



176 THE LIFE OF JESUS 



... 



temple of a redeemed humanity. The same thought is 
expressed in different words in Jesus' conversation with 
the Samaritan woman. "The hour cometh when neither 
in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the 
Father. But . . . true worshippers shall worship the 
Father in spirit and truth." 

The prophets had looked forward to the day when all 
Israel should know the Lord. Even the Pharisees differed 
in theory from the priests upon this matter, and had 
become the nation's schoolmasters so as to teach each 
Israelite how to know and worship God. They had, 
however, as we have learned, gradually substituted the 
knowledge of legal traditions for direct communion with 
the Father. 

In the light of the cleansing of the temple by Jesus 
how startling seems the fulfilment of the saying of that 
stanch old Jerusalem prophet, Jeremiah: 

"I will put my law in their inward parts, 
And in their heart will I write it; 
And I will be their God, 
And they shall be my people; 

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, 

And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: 

For they shall all know me, 

From the least of them unto the greatest of them." 

And, again, read the saying of Zechariah, the prophet of 
a restored temple : 

"Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy unto the 
Lord of hosts . . . 
And there shall be no more a trafficker in the house of the 
Lord of hosts." 

As the marketmen and their cattle fled, at once there 
came flocking into the temple a crowd of the lame, the 
sick and the poor, groups of Gentiles who once more 
had access to the place of prayer, and companies of chil- 




PURIFICATION OF THE TEMPLE. 
From a painting by H. Hofmann. 



THE NATION'S LEADER 177 

dren who again recognized the Master as the nation's 
leader. Such was the brave and noble presentation 
which Jesus made of His divine claims. As He had 
attacked the Pharisees without compunction, so now 
He attacked priestcraft without mercy. Jesus never 
destroyed except to put something better in its place; 
and as men saw the wrong of injustice and the uselessness 
of blood sacrifices, they also began to see how much more 
a genuine and direct communion with God might mean 
to themselves and to their nation. 



CHAPTER XXXI 
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST JESUS 

The next morning when Jesus came in from Bethany 
to Jerusalem the court of the Gentiles was crowded. 
With difficulty He pressed His way to the top of the 
steps at the edge of the platform which led to the inner 
colonnade and enclosure. His coming was recognized 
with shouts and song. The prophet of Nazareth was the 
central figure in Jerusalem that day. 

But His supremacy was not to be unquestioned. 
Hardly had Jesus found His way to a high and central 
spot where all could see and hear Him when there came 
out from the priests' chambers an imposing company. 
Escorted by a body of scribes of the Pharisees and mem- 
bers of the religious assembly of the Jews, came Caia- 
phas, the High Priest and Annas, his father-in-law, the 
most powerful man in the nation. In religious authority 
and official pomp, in historic dignity and splendor of 
costume no company of similar impressiveness to-day 
can be compared, short of that of the Pope and the 
College of Cardinals as they might appear before a vast 
concourse in front of St. Peter's at Rome. The great 
congregation outside bowed in reverent prostration. 
The dialogue that followed gets part of its force from the 
fact that it was overheard by at least a part of this throng. 

' ' By what authority are you doing these things ? And 
who gave you this authority?" asked the High Priest 
sternly. 

We can imagine the trepidation with which the Galilean 
fishermen heard this question from the lips of one whose 
office they had from childhood been taught to regard 
as that of the direct representative of Jehovah. What 

178 



JESUS' AUTHORITY 



179 



indeed could their friend, a carpenter, unlettered, un- 
ordained, say to such a question, a question which the 
High Priest was bound to ask ? 

They were amazed to see that Jesus was quite self- 
possessed. 

"Let me ask you a question first," replied Jesus courte- 
ously but firmly. "If you answer me fairly, then I will 
tell you by what authority 
I am doing these things. 
Who gave John the Baptist 
authority for his baptizing — 
did it come from heaven — or 
from men?" 

The word of Jesus struck 
like a thunderbolt. Its im- 
port was clear as lightning. 
If they should say, "It came 
from men," what would this 
congregation, who looked up- 
on John as a martyred saint, 
do to them ? If they should 
acknowledge that it came 
from God, this successor of 
John would need only to 
ask, "Why then did you not believe in him?" to put 
them to still greater confusion. 

"Answer me," said Jesus quietly. 

"We — do not know," some of them stammered. 

"Then I will not tell you by whose authority I act," 
responded Jesus, closing the conversation. 

It was a dangerous position in which Jesus had been 
placed, for the priestly body, with the learned scribes as 
experts, assumed the right to prevent what they decided 
to be heretical discourses, in this plaza of the temple. 
Jesus had not only postponed their silencing Him at this 
time, but by sounding the venerated name of John He 
became sure of the favorable attention of the multitude. 

The Gospels give us fragments of the addresses of Jesus 




(Copyright, 1895, by J. J. Tissot.) 
The Enemies of Jesus. 



180 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

in the temple, but they also tell us that He was interrupted 
that day by concerted endeavors on the part of His 
enemies to dislodge Him in the confidence of the people. 

Some Pharisees, among them a few renegade Jews who 
were subservient courtiers of the Roman authority, met 
Him and, pretending that they admired His candor and 
fearlessness, asked Him to say frankly, whether He be- 
lieved in giving tribute to Caesar. If He should say, 
No, He would thereby assume to be a Messiah with 
revolutionary aims, and they could have Him arrested for 
high treason. If He should say, Yes, then they could per- 
suade the people that He was no patriot. 

"You hypocrites!" exclaimed Jesus in indignation. 
1 1 Why do you ask ? Show me some of the tribute-money. ' ' 

Some one held up a denarius. 

"Whose portrait and name do you see on this coin?" 
asked Jesus of its owner. 

"The Emperor's." 

The very fact that they used the Roman coin showed 
that they owed at least protection to the Romans. 

"Then what belongs to the Emperor pay to the Emperor 
— and pay God what belongs to God." 

Abruptly Jesus turned to the multitude before Him 
and said, "Beware of these Pharisees in their long silken 
robes, who insist upon your prostrations in the market- 
places and who seize the principal seats in your synagogues 
and dinners. These are the men who gulp down widows' 
houses. They strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. 
They tithe the tiniest garden- seeds, and they leave un- 
done justice and mercy and faith. Do as they say, 
but do not do as they do. Their deeds deserve nothing 
but condemnation." By this time his solicitous ques- 
tioners had become invisible. 

The same day, inspired no doubt from the same 
source, came some Sadducees to try to entangle Him. 
The Sadducees were theologically the bitter enemies of 
the Pharisees, but they were at one in their wish to be 
undisturbed. For the Sadducees were an aristocratic 



THE SADDUCEES 181 

party, chiefly of priests, holding the most conservative 
views, but chiefly interested in keeping their priestly 
privileges. Their special difference of thought with the 
Pharisees and the rest of their race was about immor- 
tality. The Jews in general had been taught by the 
Pharisees to believe that the souls of the righteous were 
to come back in their reanimated bodies to the earth, 
either as at present or renewed, and thus live immortally. 
The Sadducees, on the other hand, held the more ancient 
view that the soul continues in the shadowy land, called 
Sheol, forever. So they approached Him with an illus- 
tration by which they had probably often reduced to 
absurdity the matter-of-fact immortality of the Pharisees. 
It was about a woman who, being left a widow, and child- 
less, according to the olden custom was married by her 
late husband's brother, and, upon his death, by his other 
brothers, in turn until she had had seven husbands. 
"When they all come back to earth, whose wife will she 
be?" 

Jesus would not take lightly the subject upon which 
He had the most certain convictions. His reply, in brief, 
was this: "You do not understand either our Scriptures 
or the power of God. The Scriptures tell us that God 
said : ' I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob. ' 
Now the living God is not the God of poor, lifeless shades ; 
He is the God of the living. His sons never die ; they are 
the sons of God, sons of the resurrection. And as for 
your question, the sons of this age marry, but the sons of 
that age do not live in a world of marrying. Their life 
is that of the Sons of the Mighty." 

This reply, while it confuted the shallow reasoning of 
the Sadducees, was not any more satisfying to the Phari- 
sees. Jesus evidently did not believe that immortality 
is an earthly paradise, devoted to housekeeping and 
money-getting. After His death His disciples remem- 
bered His noble faith, that there is no death to any of 
God's children. 

By such responses as these Jesus strengthened His 



182 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



hold upon the eager attention of the capital city, espe- 
cially intent at its central religious and patriotic festival 
upon whatever touched the matters of the soul. 

During the rest of the day He was visited by various 
individuals and groups of a more friendly character. A 
candid scribe of the Pharisees, who asked Him for a 
summary of the Law, was charmed to hear the two golden 
sayings by which Jesus showed that He had caught the 
very spirit of the holy oracles. Some Greeks who were 

present in the city and who had 

listened to Him came to urge 

m~^l JF^j^ Him to go with them and teach 

in their own country. At this 
invitation from representatives 
of the nation which more than 
any other had sought for in- 
ward and outward beauty Jesus 
was deeply stirred. "No," He 
said, * ' the time has come for me. 
Those who love their own lives, 
lose them. Yet I am indeed 
perplexed. . . . What shall I 
say? 'Father, bring me safe 
out of this time of trial ? ' No, 
for this very thing I come 
say: 'Father, honor thine own 
name. ' " 

He would not flee. He might not now even teach 
elsewhere. He must not give up His task. Here He 
must honor God, even if it cost Him His life. 

On the way out of the temple, as they were returning 
to Bethany at evening, Jesus, ever alert to the finer ex- 
pressions of human goodness, called the attention of His 
friends to a touching incident. One poor widow came 
quietly up to one of the metal coffers by the door, placed 
there for free-will thank-offerings, down which pom- 
pous Pharisees were rattling their ostentatious gifts, and 
dropped in the smallest of coins, evidently all her liveli- 




Greeks Asking to See Jesus. 



unto this 



time. I must 



THE CONSPIRACY 



183 



hood for the day. "In the Father's sight," said Jesus 
kindly, "has she not put in more than anybody else ?" 

By the purging of the temple Jesus had made the priests 
His foes. His silencing of the Sadducees made the 
priestly party even more bitter against Him. The Phari- 
sees had already condemned Him officially when He was 
in Galilee and now He had confronted them in Jerusalem 
and by denying their authority to silence Him had begun 
to turn the populace against them. It was evident that 
if Jesus were permitted to 
continue, He would end both 
the sacrificial system and the 
dominion of the scribes. He 
had steadily refused to stir 
up a revolt and had disowned 
any intention of subverting 
the Roman rule, but already 
Jerusalem, with its concourse 
of excited pilgrims from all 
Israel, was His audience and 
seemed likely to turn to His 
discipleship. 

Persuasion, threats, intel- 
lectual fencing had failed to 
swerve the Nazarene. But 
one thing was left to do — 

assassinate Him. To this priests and scribes agreed, and 
in this cowardly purpose inveterate enemies joined hands. 

Although the Pharisees had for a long time been try- 
ing to put a stop to the influence of Jesus, they fall into 
the background as soon as the plot for His destruction 
gets under way. No doubt, some of them were numbered 
among the priests and the Sanhedrin, but the leadership 
in the destruction of Jesus was in the hands of the priestly 
party. 

The first thought of the priests was that it would not 
do to throw Jerusalem into a turmoil during the feast, 
by interfering with the teaching of Jesus. It became 




(Copyright by J. J. Tissot.) 
The Pharisees Plotting Together. 



184 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

evident, however, that He was taking such good advan- 
tage of this occasion that they must, at any cost, bring 
His work to a close before He got possession of the mind 
and heart of Jerusalem. It seemed wise, therefore, if 
possible, to arrest Him secretly some evening and get 
Him into the hands of the Romans, so that when His 
friends and partisans learned in the morning of His cap- 
ture, the blame could be thrown upon the Romans, and 
it would be impossible to release Him. In order to bring 
this about it was desirable that some one should be found 




Judas Bargaining to Betray Jesus. 

who knew the places where Jesus resorted, and who could 
lead a sufficient company of officers to surround and arrest 
Him. At the very moment of need such a person appeared 
in Judas Iscariot. 

The character of Judas has long been the subject of 
study. Dante places him in the lowest abyss of the 
Inferno, among those who were traitors to their kind. 
It has been common to think of him as the worst man 
who ever lived. John Ruskin was, no doubt, nearer 
right when he asserted that Judas was "only a common 
money-lover." While he must have had some hopeful 
qualities in order to have attracted the attention of 
Jesus, the question "Will it pay?" soon began to be the 
test by which he guided all his actions. During the slow 
progress of the Galilean ministry he had managed to be- 



JUDAS THE TRAITOR 185 

come chosen treasurer of the small funds which the Twelve 
held in common, and in the use of these he had been a 
thief. 

Apparently he had become convinced that the cause 
of Jesus was hopeless, and he determined to stand out 
from under it and leave his comrades and his Master in 
the lurch. Even in doing this he thought he might as 
well get whatever advantage there was possible. He 
had perhaps excused himself on the ground that it was 
plain that Jesus was going to be captured, anyway. 

Just at the moment when the priests needed help he 
came to them and offered to co-operate in their plot. 
Whether they made a definite offer of money at the time, 
or promised to pay him a suitable amount, we do not 
know. It would hardly seem credible that Judas would 
have accepted so small a sum as the thirty pieces of silver, 
amounting in modern spending value to not more than 
as many dollars, unless indeed they persuaded him that 
his part in the conspiracy was such a trifling one that it 
deserved no larger recompense. It is a significant fact 
that Judas sold his Master for what was the price of a 
common slave. He agreed to dog Jesus' footsteps, and 
at the first suitable opportunity to discover to them some 
place where Jesus would be in retirement during the eve- 
ning, when they would place in his charge a sufficient body 
of soldiers to apprehend Him. 



CHAPTER XXXII 
JESUS' ATTITUDE IN THE FACE OF DEATH 

Jesus knew that He must die. He was familiar with 
the history of other prophets. He had watched the per- 
secution of John. He recognized the spirit of the men 
about Him. 

Just as He was at the summit of His opportunity, He 
was to be sacrificed to the selfish interests of the two 
dominant religious parties of His race. What was the 
attitude of Jesus in the face of such a tragedy ? 

Jesus was not unprepared for His fate. The Gospels 
imply that ever since His spiritual experience upon Mount 
Hermon the conviction had grown that, whatever the re- 
sponse Jerusalem might make to His teachings, He would 
be but one more of her prophets whom she should slay. 

The whole attitude of Jesus toward death is summed 
up in His word to the Greeks who came to Him during 
the Passover: "The way for a man to lose his life is to 
love it too much." In saying this Jesus stood beside 
other heroes who could say with our modern Stevenson : 

"My undissuaded heart I hear 
Whisper courage in my ear . . . 
To laugh, to love, to live, to die." 

No doubt, like others who have found death in the 
path of duty, He did not know all that His death should 
do, but He knew, as the soldier, the sailor, the father 
knows who chooses to die when to live and let others die 
means dishonor, that life reaches its noblest estate only 
when it is sacrificed. Many have believed that the 
description of the suffering servant in the fifty-third 
chapter of Isaiah, who was "despised and rejected of 

186 



JESUS* FAITH IN IMMORTALITY 187 

men" and "led to slaughter," persuaded Jesus that it 
was within the Father's will that the Messiah should 
die in shame, rather than immediately triumph, while, 
after He "poured out his soul unto death," in some 
mysterious way He should "see of the travail of his soul 
and be satisfied" in that He had been the means of rescue 
to many. 

But though Jesus expected to die, He did not expect 
His spirit to perish. As we have learned from His dia- 
logue with the Sadducees, His faith in the Father lifted 
Him above such a despair. He did not even think, as 
they did, that He might survive as a lifeless shade in Sheol. 
Nor did He accept the belief of the Pharisees that, while 
a few heroes, like Enoch and Moses and Elijah, had been 
translated to the heavens, most men would come back, 
in their reanimated bodies, to this earth when it was 
renovated for them. We may accept as true to the con- 
viction of Jesus, if not His very words, the sayings which 
John represents Him as giving to His disciples on the 
night before His death : "In my Father's house are many 
abiding places. There I am going, to make a place 
ready for you." But that Jesus did not think , His life 
after death was to be separate in knowledge and inter- 
est from this earth and His friends upon it is seen by the 
other words which John gives: "If I go I will send the 
Comforter to you. . . . He shall take my words and 
shall explain them to you. ... I will see you again, 
and your heart shall rejoice." In some spiritual way 
Jesus expected that He would very soon manifest Him- 
self to His friends in their daily life. This Comforter, 
this "Spirit of Christ" as Paul calls it, is to continue the 
Messianic work, for He will "convict the world of its 
sin, bring to it a new conception of righteousness and set 
up a new standard of judgment" and gradually "guide 
the disciples into all truth." In more than one of the 
Gospels the promise is that His presence shall be a help 
in doing their daily duties and in setting up there the 
Kingdom of Heaven. 



188 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



Concerning the future of that kingdom on earth we 
find it hard to learn just how far Jesus was able to foresee. 
At least one quotation crept into the Gospels from 
an apocalyptic (that is, an allegorical-prophetic) book 
written many years after the death of Jesus, and was 
attributed to His lips. Such enthusiastic "tracts in bad 
times" were favorite reading in the days of trial in the 
early church. We have one such in our New Testa- 
ment in the Book of Revelation. We find in them all 

the idea that in the 
immediate future are to 
be persecutions and trials 
and that one of these 
early trials is to be the 
destruction of the city of 
Jerusalem. Surely Jesus 
was statesman enough to 
realize that the restless 
and uncompromising 
spirit of the Pharisees, 
which soon became well- 
nigh insane in its bigot- 
ry and obstinacy, could 
bring nothing else but bloodshed and ruin. It is pleasant 
to think that He may have had the tender foresight to 
warn His followers to avoid the horrors of the siege that 
came during the next generation, so that, as history tells 
us, the Christian community made its escape while yet 
the gates were open. 

There is no doubt too that Jesus believed that the 
Kingdom of Heaven was to become worldwide. His 
Father was the Father of all men everywhere, and not 
merely of Jews. From His early ministry the great 
parables of the Sower, the Leaven, the Great Supper, the 
Lost Sheep, had taken for granted the exceeding broad- 
ness of the love and purpose of God. His heart, that 
had been so quick to welcome the faith of a Roman 
centurion, a Syro-Phcenician woman, the Samaritans 







Christ Comforting His Disciples at the 
Passover Supper. 



THE LAST SUPPER 189 

and the Greeks, was in accord with the noblest of the 
prophets, who, like the author of the eighty-seventh 
Psalm, sang of : 

"Rahab and Babylon as among them that know me. 
Behold, Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; 
This one was born there," 

or who, like Joel, represented God as saying : 

"Afterward I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh . . . 
And whosoever calleth upon the name of Jehovah shall be 
saved." 

The Christian world has rightly accepted as the resurrec- 
tion message of its Master those words found in Mark : 

"Go ye into all the world, 
And preach the Gospel to every creature." 

On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of the Passover 
week Jesus taught in the temple. Wednesday and Thurs- 
day it is believed He spent in solitary rest in Bethany 
or upon the slopes of the Mount of Olives. Thursday 
Jesus sent Peter and John into Jerusalem to complete a 
private arrangement which He had made with a friend 
that His guest-chamber should be fitted with a table and 
couches so that Jesus might there celebrate the Passover 
with the Twelve. Jesus had in some way become aware 
of the alienation of Judas, and He designed that Judas 
might not, by discovering beforehand where they were 
to meet, be able to arrest Him before He had said His 
parting words to His friends. 

When the Twelve came into the room where the couches 
were arranged for the ceremonial, there was an unseemly 
crowding toward the head of the table, in order that each 
might secure one of the seats of honor. Jesus uttered 
no rebuke, but after all had reclined He retired to an ante- 
room, and soon came in, his cloak removed, girdled with 
a towel and carrying a basin of water — in short, attired 
as a slave. Silently He knelt at the back of each couch 



190 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



and began to wash His disciples' feet. All were ashamed 
to see the servile task performed by their Teacher, though 
only Simon objected. When Jesus was seated again, 
He explained himself. "Do you understand what I 
have been doing ? The kings of the Greeks and the 
Romans are accustomed to lord it over them. But it 
is not to be so with you. On the contrary, those who 
are greatest must become like the youngest, and the 

chief is he who 
serves." 

As they were 

eating the supper 

Jesus said: "This 

very night they 

will strike down 

your shepherd, 

and His sheep 

will be scattered. 

Simon, listen. 

The Tempter has 

demanded leave 

to sift you like 

wheat. But I 

have prayed for 

you, Simon, that your faith shall never fail. And I 

look to you, when you have been turned again, to 

strengthen your brothers." 

Simon sprang to his feet. 

"Me fail?" he shouted. "I shall never fail you. If 
every one else falls away from you, I never will. With 
you I am ready to go to dungeon, yes, even to death." 
The rest, too, excitedly swore an oath of eternal alle- 
giance. 

"And yet," said Jesus sadly, "I fear that before cock- 
crow you will more than once have disowned me." 
"Are any of you armed ?" Jesus asked anxiously. 
Learning that some were thus protected against sur- 
prise, Jesus continued His conversation. 



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The Tomb of David. 
The room shown as the ccenaculum, or upper chamber, is 
in this building under the cross. 




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JESUS' MEMORIAL 191 

After the meal was over Jesus took some of the un- 
leavened flat cakes and an untouched cup of wine, and 
stood up. He broke the bread in pieces, and gave a 
morsel to each, and said, 

1 'Take it and eat it. This is my body/' 

Then He took the wine cup and carried it to each : 

' ' This, ' ' he said, ' 4s my covenant-blood. ' ' 

And Paul says that he added, ''Continue to do this as 
a remembrance of me." 




(From a photograph.) 

Bridge over the Brook Kidron, near Absalom's Tomb. 

This brook is full in winter and dry in summer. Christ crossed it many times during the last 
week of His life. 

In after years the early Christians observed this cus- 
tom. At the end of a common meal, in the home or where 
several of them were together, they would set apart some 
bread and some wine, and as they solemnly ate and 
drank, one would say, repeating the words of Jesus, 
"This is my body; this is my covenant-blood." And 
as they did so with reverent and loving hearts, the spirit 
of Jesus became real to them, and gave fresh meaning 
to the words of Jesus. 

For this was Jesus' last and greatest parable. Among 
all the words that Jesus spoke the night before His death, 
these two are conspicuous. "This is my body" — I 
am your daily food. "This is my covenant -blood " — 
I am helping you to keep the covenant of love between 



192 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



you and the Father. These are the ways that the Com- 
forter, His Spirit, brings the living Christ unto our daily 
life. 

Because of abuses that crept in, the Lord's Supper 
was by and by separated from the daily meal, but it was 
the intention of Jesus that every common meal, shared 
together in brotherhood, should be a Lord's Supper; 
and that a cup of cold water, given in love, should be a 
veritable holy communion. 

After the last supper Jesus led His disciples out through 
the eastern gate of the city and down over the bridge 

across the Brook Kid- 
ron, toward Bethany. 
On the way up the slope 
of the Mount of Olives 
He turned in at an olive- 
orchard and there 
paused. 

A young man from 
the city, possibly the son 
of the owner of the house 
of the upper room, seems 
to have followed them in 
the darkness. Probably 
he gave the alarm when the soldiers appeared. He barely 
escaped just after the arrest of Jesus, leaving his cloak 
in the hands of one of the soldiers. To him we probably 
are indebted for an account of what occurred in the 
orchard. This young man has been supposed to be the 
evangelist Mark. 

Jesus left eight of the disciples near the orchard gate 
and took Peter, James and John with Him as He walked 
among the shadows from the Passover moon, into the 
quieter seclusion of its interior. Ere He left the three 
He told them that His anguish was well-nigh unto death, 
and He entreated them to stay awake while He went a 
little farther and engaged in prayer. 

The words of the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane have 




(From a photograph. 
View in the Garden of Gethsemane. 



THE AGONY IN GETHSEMANE 



193 



always aroused the most reverent thoughtfulness of Chris- 
tians. The substance of the petition was that a certain 
"cup" of anguish might be removed from His lips, but 
if not, that He might be given by the Father strength 
to drink it. Perhaps none of us fully know what this 
"cup" was. It was surely not the fear of death, though 
one so young and strong and vital might well shudder 
at such an untimely end. The curse and shame of His 
approaching death were cer- 
tainly no minor grief. More 
deeply, though, Jesus felt in 
His loving heart the agony of 
being rejected by those He 
loved. His soul also stood 
aghast at the horror of such 
blind and cruel wickedness as 
that of Judas and the priests. 
Most keenly one realizes, how- 
ever, that at that hour He felt 
the desire not to leave His dis- 
ciples in their blindness and 
faint-heartedness, but to con- 
tinue personally the great and 
divine work to which He had 
given His life, and not to die 

until He had seen the Kingdom no longer languishing in 
weakness, but coming in power and blessing. 

His agony was so great that the watcher in the shadows 
reported His countenance bedewed as if with drops of 
blood. Again and again He came back to His three 
friends to be sustained by their human sympathy. 
Finally, in compassion at their exhaustion, He let them 
sleep. Then the Divine Spirit entered His heart and 
comforted Him. Thus His prayer was answered, and 
He arose, strong and fearless, to meet what was before 
Him. 




(From a photograph.) 
Old Olive-Tree in Gethsemane. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



BETRAYED, DENIED, CONDEMNED 



In the meantime Judas had slipped from the upper room 
and hastened to the palace of the High Priest, and Caia- 
phas had summoned to his aid a mob with perhaps a 
sprinkling of the temple guard. 

It is quite possible that Judas led the band first to the 
upper room, and finding Jesus already departed, set out 

for Gethsemane. Stealing 
forward in advance of the 
main body of the soldiers and 
temple guards, Judas had 
probably discovered, as he 
would suspect that Jesus 
would pause in this favorite 
resting-place. He surrounded 
the orchard with men and 
led a squad in through the 
gateway. Many were armed 
with staves, and a number 
carried lanterns and torches, 
although the moon was full, 
so that they might search in 
the dark shadows, if Jesus 
should be in hiding. The deep impression which Jesus 
had made upon Jerusalem, and the fears which the priests 
felt as to His possible resistance or escape, may be judged 
by the careful arrangements that were made to arrest 
Him. So that they might watch their own triumph, some 
of His enemies accompanied the party. 

Jesus aroused His three friends, and then the others who 
were resting beside the gate, and urged them to make 

194 



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The Kiss of Judas. 



THE JEWISH EXAMINATION 



195 



their escape. Judas entered the orchard in advance of 
the rest as if to make believe that he was innocent of the 
presence of the soldiers behind him, and came up and 
embraced Jesus in pretended anxiety. This was the 
prearranged signal so that they might not seize the 
wrong victim. 

"Is this the way," asked Jesus, with revulsion, "that 
you betray the Son of man — with a kiss?" Then He 
advanced boldly to meet the crowd. His first manly 
instinct was to assure 
them that He was not 
intending flight. 

"Why have you come 
here as if against a thief, 
with swords and staves ? 
Why did you not arrest 
me in the temple where 
I have been teaching 
daily?" 

This brave act of Jesus 
was not merely in defense 
of His own honor, but 
also to shelter His friends. 
He threw Himself between the soldiers and the Twelve, 
and they, after perhaps a brief and ineffective attempt at 
defense, forsook Him and fled. 

The process of condemning Jesus to death was as fol- 
lows: First, He was examined before the Jewish author- 
ities and adjudged guilty, but as the Sanhedrin had no 
right to take away life, He was next tried before the Roman 
authorities. He was brought before Annas and Caia- 
phas for a preliminary examination, in the hope that He 
might say something which could be used as an excuse 
for condemning Him. This examination took place in 
the presence of an irregular assembly of some of the 
Sanhedrin which had been hastily brought together. As 
night sessions of the Sanhedrin were not lawful, the method 
of procedure was illegal throughout. Jesus was allowed 




(Copyright, 1896, by J. J. Tissot.) 
Annas and Caiaphas. 



196 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 




The Sanhedrin. 



no legal representative and no adequate opportunity for 
defense. When He protested against the unlawful pro- 
ceedings He was smitten upon the face by an underling of 

Annas, and, al- 
though a pris- 
oner was not 
allowed to in- 
criminate him- 
self, He was 
forced upon 
oath to declare 
whether He 
was or was not 
the Messiah. 
This He did 
not deny, and 
as all the testimony which had been hastily brought to- 
gether was foolishly inconclusive, this one statement was 
accepted as sufficient for His condemnation. His enemies 
also made much of some statement which Jesus had made 
that week regarding the 
destruction of the tem- 
ple. What Jesus had 
meant was that it was 
time its abuse came to 
an end. What they 
claimed that He meant 
was that He proposed 
the sacrilege of attempt- 
ing to destroy it with 
his own hands. 

In the meantime, Si- 
mon Peter, who had 
found his way into the 

courtyard of the palace of Caiaphas, being suddenly 
questioned by some who thought they recognized him 
as having been in the olive- orchard, impulsively and 
weakly denied his Master. It was while he was doing 



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(From a photograph.) 
Courtyard in the House of Caiaphas. 



JESUS' TRIAL BEFORE PILATE 



197 



this with oaths, that Jesus was led across the courtyard. 
The anguish of the spectacle of the disloyalty of His 




The Jews Urging Pilate to Condemn Jesus. 

trusted friend was added to the burdens of this sorrowful 
night. Judas, too, suddenly saw the enormity of his 
offense, and in the early morning 
fruitlessly endeavored to make 
some reparation by restoring 
the fruits of his treachery. 

The formal trial of Jesus was 
that before the Roman judge, 
Pontius Pilate, the procurator 
of Judea and Samaria, who had 
his capital at Caesarea, upon the 
coast of the Mediterranean. 
There was, however, a smaller 
palace and hall of justice in 
Jerusalem. To Him, in the 
>arly morning, they led Jesus. 
Pilate came forth to the ele- 
vated platform, where he fre- 
quently made judicial decisions, and to this elevated 
place Jesus also was lifted, to stand before him. Pilate, 





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The Castle Antonia. 



198 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



as a Roman, indifferent to Jewish beliefs and customs, 
could hardly have realized how monstrous was the 
spectacle of the priests of the Jewish nation leading their 
Messiah to a foreign judge, in order to demand His death. 
The charges for which the priests had condemned Jesus 
would not have interested Pilate. What did he care 
about blasphemy of the Jewish God ? They tried first 
to get Pilate to condemn Jesus upon their own unsupported 
statements, but Pilate was too shrewd an administrator 




So-called House of Caiaphas, now an Armenian Monastery. 

to do this. They, therefore, charged that Jesus was a 
revolutionary and was ambitious to become king. In the 
private examination Pilate soon learned that the only 
claim of kingship Jesus made was that He was king in 
the realm of truth. The word " truth" did not especially 
interest Pilate. He lived in the realm of expediency, 
rather than that of truth, as the events of the morning 
soon showed. Pilate brought Jesus back to the platform 
and asserted that he found Him innocent. 

Instead of releasing Him at once, as a judge should 
have done, he caught at the suggestion that the deeds 
which had been alleged against Him had some of them 
been performed in Galilee. Desiring to make friends 
with Herod Antipas, with whom he had quarrelled, he 
sent Jesus over to the palace of Herod, who had come 
down to the Passover in search of casual amusement. 



THE WEAKNESS OF PILATE 



199 



To Herod, the murderer of His best friend, who strove 
to incite Jesus to some religious discussion, Jesus was 
mute. Resolving not to be cheated out of his pleasure, 
Herod scornfully dressed Jesus in the mock robes of a 
king and sent Him back to Pilate. 

Again Pilate asserted publicly that the man was inno- 
cent, but again, instead of releasing Him, he endeavored 
to please his restless subjects by the cruel injustice of 
ordering Jesus to 
be scourged be- 
fore He was set 
free. He hoped 
in this way to 
excite their pity 
and satisfy their 
desire for re- 
venge. The Ro- 
man scourging 
was so cruel a 
punishment 
that men fainted, 
and often died 
beneath it. To 
the physical tor- 
ment of the 
scourging the 

brutal soldiers added their curses and heartless persecu- 
tions, treating His almost insensate body like that of 
a brute beast. Again Pilate started to free Jesus. Not- 
ing that a large company of citizens had gathered in the 
open space before the platform, he appealed to the multi- 
tude, following a custom observed at the Passover Feast. 
He offered to set free any culprit they might choose. 
Selecting a brigand and murderer, who had started an 
insurrection, he offered them the choice between Jesus 
and this Barabbas. To his consternation the crowd, 
either desirous to show favor to a supposed patriot, or 
incited by the remonstrances of the priests, insisted 




Herod's Palace and Tower of Hdppicus. 

Nothing of the original Herod's palace now remains, but the 
lower portion of the massive tower of Hippicus still stands as 
left by Titus, to show future generations the strength of the 
city he had conquered. 



200 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

upon the freedom of Barabbas. Then Pilate determined 
to show his excessive generosity and satisfy his own con- 
science, by releasing them both. 

The priests, who had skilfully taken advantage of the 
weaknesses of Pilate through this whole morning, now 
brought to bear the strongest argument, one by which 
they had always been able in the past to play on the fears 
of their governor. They now threatened that if he 
released Jesus and thus showed that he condoned such a 
revolutionary, he would prove thereby that he was not a 
friend of the emperor, and that they would complain of 
him to Rome. Pilate could not afford to have such a 
scrutiny made of his administration, for it had been stained 
with injustice. Indeed, when such an examination was 
made a few years later, he promptly lost his position. 
He, therefore, capitulated instantly and ordered Jesus 
to be turned over to a squad of soldiers to be executed. 

This hasty summary does not do justice to the attitude 
of Jesus through these terrible hours. Though exhausted 
by the excitement of the previous day and night and by 
loss of sleep and food, Jesus preserved His self-control. 
He endured stoically the torments of the scourge and the 
insults that preceded and followed. He accepted His 
Messianic calling, though He knew that a denial would 
save His life. He defended Himself quietly, but by every 
legal means, when He was examined by Pilate, and He 
even told him pityingly that the blame was not so much 
his own as that of the conscienceless men who had brought 
the innocent victim before him, and who had insisted upon 
having their own way. Pilate seems to have been grad- 
ually won to a sincere admiration by the demeanor of 
Jesus, who had before this moment been to him a com- 
plete stranger. Toward the close of the hearing he led 
the Galilean to the front of the platform and made a 
final appeal to the citizens of Jerusalem, saying "Behold ! 
the Man !" The spectacle of Jesus — His hands fettered, 
His shoulders covered with the faded military cloak, His 
head bleeding from the crown of thorns which had been 



THE DEMEANOR OF JESUS 201 

crushed upon His forehead, His face the expression of 
innocence and virtue — might well have excited the sym- 
pathy of the most heartless. Had this been a Galilean 
throng they would, no doubt, have pleaded for His release 
and perhaps demanded it, but this was largely a company 
of Jerusalem people, many of whom perhaps had listened 
to the teachings of Jesus, but who had not the strength of 
mind nor the conscience to contend vigorously against 
their religious leaders for justice. 

Four soldiers led Jesus. Bowing beneath the burden 
of a Roman cross which was ready at hand, and escorted 
by a small company of soldiers and by His eager enemies, 
He walked wearily along the northward lane which led 
to the hill of execution. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 
THE DEATH OF JESUS 

The death of Jesus may be viewed in many ways. We 
could think of that union of priestly hatred and Roman 
cruelty which crowned His agonies with insult and added 
the refinement of torture to a death of shame. We 
could dwell upon the circumstances of a day which began 
with the curses of a senseless mob, proceeded with the 
gambling of hired ruffians for the clothing of the victim, 
was made hideous by the curses of the malefactors who 
hung beside Him and which ended in the despair of all 
His friends. We could urge sympathy for one who was 
forsaken by tried comrades, who walked to death in utter 
loneliness, and who found His last sympathy from the 
hearts of stranger women, His last co-operation in the 
shoulders of a stranger forced at the point of Roman 
spears to help Him with His cross, His last deed of comfort 
from His executioner, and His last disciple in a dying thief. 
In short, it is easy to see the cross as the very emblem of 
pathos and tragedy, and its pathos has melted many 
hearts in compassion and even unto discipleship, while 
its tragedy has forced upon a forgetting world the eternal 
misery which sin brings to this world of men. 

It is more fair to Jesus and a truer approach to His 
spirit if we consider His death in the light of His own 
attitude toward it and His own demeanor during the 
crucifixion. 

Death had no terror for Jesus. To Him it was not 
finality. It was but the way by which men go to their 
Father's house. Since He had outgrown the crude 
conception of a Sheol of lifeless spirits as the house of the 
dead and disowned the imperfect faith of the men of His 
time that the abode of God was reserved for a select saint- 

202 



JESUS' UNSHAKEN FAITH 203 

hood of great men and angels, to Him death was the re- 
lease of the soul for its immediate entrance into the 
Father's House. That He should die so young, that He 
should perish in shame and thus seem to close up the hope 
of the Kingdom, that He should not be permitted to 
remain as the champion and leader on earth of His faint- 
hearted followers, that He should be the victim of the 
demonic hatred of the leaders of a nation which He loved 
and was endeavoring to lead out into its spiritual rights — 
these were bitter burdens, and their load constituted the 
agony in the orchard of Gethsemane. But for all these 
He had prepared His heart on the mountain in upper 
Galilee, and even in Gethsemane He had patiently yielded 
to the necessity which tried both heart and faith. 

The one great thought that sustained Jesus on the 
cross was the one by whose strength He had lived: the 
thought of the Father. He had all his life believed that 
the heart of the universe is love, and He had taught men 
that their only right attitude toward one another should 
be that which the Father has toward them, the attitude 
of unavenging, forgiving love. If Jesus at any time 
during the week of His passion had distrusted for a mo- 
ment the love of the Father, He would have avoided the 
cross. The proof of His implicit and unshaken faith in 
that love is seen in His willingness to die upon the cross. 
He Himself would show to men even to the last the 
Father's spirit, that of forgiving love. 

Jesus also had faith in the victory of love. He believed 
it to be the strongest thing in the universe. Though 
God is baffled by the unlovingness of men, Jesus was sure 
that the secret of conquering hatred was simply more 
love. God would love men into loving Him. It was the 
duty of Jesus to love men to the last, believing that His 
ultimate expression of love, by dying for men, would do 
what even His loving life had not accomplished. So 
Jesus believed that even His death would contribute to 
the welfare of His Kingdom, and the personal good of 
men. He had used mystic expressions which suggest 



204 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

His hope. "The corn of wheat," John tells us He said, 
"must first fall into the ground and die, and then it 
brings forth much fruit." That His death was to re- 
lease a mighty energy into the world He felt certain, 
and expressed this when He said, "I have come to cast 
fire upon the earth. I have a baptism to be baptized with, 
and how am I straitened until it be accomplished." That 
His death was to help accomplish the release for which 
the Messiah was to come He announced when He said 
that He was "to give His life a ransom for many" and 
again, at the last supper, when, thinking of the covenant 
expressed in the burnt-offering of Moses, He said, "This 
is my covenant-blood which is shed for many." 

Jesus therefore went to His cross not as a victim, but 
as one who gave His life for others. He did, it is true, 
defend Himself before Pilate with all the dignity of an 
innocent citizen, and yet when He was offered by the 
priests His life if He would deny His mission, He re- 
iterated boldly His office as the Messiah. He shrank, 
as was natural to a loving and brave spirit, from the 
scenes of hatred upon which He was to enter and the 
form of death which might cause His friends to lose faith 
in His leadership, but His shrinking did not prevent His 
going steadily forward along a way so dark that none but 
the Father could see light at the end of it. That which 
had been the object of His life work, the Kingdom of 
God, was no doubt the chief solace of His death. That 
was not a thing of flesh and blood merely and it was not 
susceptible of bodily death. It had already come; the 
seed He had Himself been sowing, men and women 
were springing up on every hand who were to be the good 
grain of the Kingdom, and the world was ready for the 
harvest. He Himself, living with the Father, though not 
in visible and earthly glory, would be at the very heart of 
that Kingdom and able by His spiritual presence to give 
it sunshine and rain for its fuller increase. Such a vision, 
even though perhaps not seen in detail, strengthened 
Jesus to meet His end. 




W •"a 

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THE LAST HOURS OF JESUS 



205 




Jesus Bearing His Cross. 



We are told in all the stories of the crucifixion how alert 
and characteristic was the spirit of Jesus until He breathed 
His last. Though worn out by loss of sleep, lack of food 
and the tortures of the scourging, Jesus bore His cross as 
long as His strength per- 
mitted, and, even almost 
fainting, was so oblivi- 
ous of His own physical 
condition as to express 
to the pitying women 
who lined the lanes His 
sympathy for their fu- 
ture, His patriotic hopes, 
and even His indignation 
at the prostitution of jus- 
tice by the priests. While 
being nailed to the cross, 
He refused the stupefy- 
ing drug which would have rendered His last hours partly 
unconscious. He bore the agony of His transfixion in 
prayer, and was heard by the soldiers to beg the Father 
for their forgiveness because of their ignorance. The fever 
and the congestion of crucifying usually produce great ex- 
citement followed by the deepest mental depression. Even 
here the soul of Jesus conquered the body. The priests, 
who had followed their victim to Golgotha, wrought to 
renewed rage by the taunt which Pilate had placed upon 

the superscription, "Jesus of 
Nazareth, King of the Jews," 
gloated over the sufferings of 
Jesus by reminding Him of 
His prophecy that their cult 
should lose its control, and 
cried at Him : ' ' Here is the one 
who was going to destroy our temple and then rebuild it 
in three days. He saved others ; let him save himself, if 
he is indeed the Messiah." To this taunt Jesus made no 
direct reply, yet He could not have failed to have had it 



IH20Y* Cf'AIQMlOiDtA&Y/YtWmMUir' 
1E5V5IYAZ4RINV5REK IVDEORVM 



The Inscription on the Cross. 



206 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



in mind when He said to the repentant thief, "To-day 
(not in three days) we shall be together in Paradise." His 
invincible soul found a servant for the Kingdom in this 
brigand, won a victory for it in His death, and promised 
that, instead of the Pharisaic Sheol, this redeemed soul 
should enter at once with Him into the presence of the 
Father. The physical depression, like the agony of the 
transfixion, He met in prayer, a prayer from a Psalm 
learned in His childhood. His inquiring soul dared to 
ask "Why" even at its departure; He faced the blackness 




(From a photograph.) 
The New Calvary and the Northern Wall of Jerusalem. 



of desertion; yet, as Dr. Stalker so finely said, "No one 
is forsaken who can say, My God." 

The human interests clung to Him to the end. He 
appealed to the brotherhood in the heart of His tormentors 
by asking them to quench His thirst, and, according to 
John, even prepared for the future care of His mother, 
who was present at His death. Indeed He was not al- 
lowed to forget mankind during His sufferings, for 
apparently He was made a spectacle by the roadside and 
was surrounded by a mob of blatant foes and secret 
sympathizers, some of whom gathered up the broken 
syllables of His latest hours. t 

Yet it is plain that a season of spiritual communion 
was given to Him toward the end, and that He had even 



THE DEATH OF JESUS 



207 



on His cross one of those experiences, as in the desert and 
upon the mountain top, in which it was given Him to 
see clearly that which the Father wished Him to know. 
The fragment from the twenty-second Psalm in which He 
expressed the sense of being forsaken by God was a part 
of a train of thought which began in the mood of deser- 
tion, but did not end there. After some moments He 
cried loudly, as if, though now doubtless blind to the 
faces around Him, He would testify the worker's faith 
in His achievement: "It is finished!" and again, at the 




Jeremiah's Grotto, near Jerusalem. 



(From a photograph.) 



last moment, ending life with a shout, He said, "Father, 
into thy hands I commit my spirit," a word that suggests 
His confidence that the most sacred trust which God 
gives, that of the spiritual life, had been guarded, to the 
last. It breathed also His faith in the Father's will and 
power, and His certainty of awakening to the immortal 
life. 

Within a few hours the broken body refused to obey its 
Master's bidding, a rupture of the heart brought the 
sudden end, and while yet the crowd was watching the 
still living malefactors on either side, He was dead. 

The dying of the Christ evidently brought an impression 
to the bystanders such as would not have been produced 
by that of an ordinarily passive victim. The thief, whose 



208 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

words can have no other interpretation than that he had 
at some time listened to Jesus and learned something of 
His message, found in his extremity a vision of who Jesus 
was which was not yet firmly held even by His nearest 
disciples. The multitude, says Luke, returned to the 
city, in contrition of heart. The centurion who was in 
charge of the execution and who had never heard of Jesus 
before was convinced, says Luke, that this was a righteous 
man. The earliest Gospel believed that He saw in Jesus 
even more, a son of the gods. To Luke the nobility of 
His character, to Mark the valor of His courage was 
impressive, even to a man accustomed to wounds and to 
the face of death. To all, His words of trust, of faith in 
His mission, of confidence of immortality made His death 
seem like a coronation. A member of the Sanhedrin, 
"who," says Mark, "was looking for the Kingdom of 
God," asked Pilate for the body, and gave it temporary 
burial in one of the tombs in the hillside near the place 
of crucifixion. 



CHAPTER XXXV 
THE CHRIST WHO ABIDES 



That there should grow out of the disorganized com- 
pany of the believers in Jesus after His death such a 
splendid force as the united and active movement of early 
Christianity, demands as its explanation some tremen- 
dous cause. The only cause discoverable that is adequate 
is the assured conviction that Jesus was still living. We 
find in the New Testa- 
ment that the central 
thought in the preach- 
ing of the Apostles was 
the resurrection of Jesus. 

So certain was the en- 
tire body of Christian be- 
lievers of the continued 
and helpful existence of 
the Master, that it was 
many years before it was 
deemed necessary to com- 
mit the grounds of their 
conviction to writing. 
What need was there of 
written proofs, when men and women were manifestly 
living a spiritual life, whose only source and explanation 
was what Paul called, " Christ living in them"? The 
personal influence of Jesus was binding together a beauti- 
ful fellowship of men and women, was sending them forth 
to evangelize the world, and was sustaining them in 
privations, persecutions and martyrdom. 

The first written record of the immortal life of Jesus is 
not in the Gospels, but in an epistle. In Paul's first 
epistle to the Corinthians, written about fifteen years 

209 

















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The "Garden Tomb." 

The entrance to the tomb is by the small door- 
way in the centre of the picture. 



210 



THE LIFE OF JESUS 



before the Gospel of Mark, he gave a careful list of the 
persons by whom Jesus was seen after His death. Among 
these he enumerated himself. This account is repeated 
in similar language in the Book of Acts. The substance 
of it is that Paul, an educated Pharisee, who had become 
convinced that it was his duty to endeavor to stamp out 
the little group of disciples who believed in whom he 
considered a false Messiah, was persuaded by a marvellous 
experience that Jesus was still living and was the spiritual 
Messiah whom God had sent to the world. Following this 







*'W, 'A 


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(From a photograph.) 
Tomb with Rolling Stone. 



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(From a photograph.) 
Entrance to the So-Called New Tomb. 



experience, Paul went forth into retirement and sat at 
the feet of his new spiritual Master, from whom he 
learned of a new race of men who had been freed from the 
law because the love of Christ ruled in their hearts. He 
felt himself commissioned by his Master as the organizer 
of a new empire, to supplement and supplant the Roman 
Empire, as the Kingdom of the spiritual in Christ. Paul's 
witness to the world then, and all through his later life, 
was that he had a personal acquaintance with the living 
Jesus, and he insisted that his knowledge of the Master 
was of equal value with any acquaintance or appearance 
of Him to any others. The experience of Paul seems to 
have been of a similar character to that of the dying 
Stephen, mentioned in the Book of Acts. 

The earliest Gospel account of the resurrection was 



THE RESURRECTION 211 

written not less than thirty years after the death of Jesus. 
This account, as we have it in Mark, is unfortunately a 
mere fragment. The first eight verses of the last chapter 
are all that are found in the earliest manuscripts, and 
the conclusion is evidently borrowed from the other 
Gospels. This fragment contains no account of the 
actual resurrection. It states that three women came 
to the neighborhood of the burial-place of Jesus, on the 
day following the Sabbath after His death, to embalm 
His body. As they drew near, wondering how they could 
roll away the stone door from the tomb, they looked up 
and saw a youth sitting beside the tomb, who said, "This 
is not where he is." The account adds that the youth 
reminded them of a statement which the Gospel had pre- 
viously made, — that Jesus had said He would rise again 
and would go before His disciples into Galilee. The 
women ran away from the tomb and were so afraid that 
they said nothing to any one about what they had seen. 
Thus the fragment ends. Some have thought that as 
the last page of a book is always easily lost, this fact ex- 
plains its disappearance. We cannot, of course, recon- 
struct the story. We may say this much, — that the 
earliest Gospel suggests that in Galilee were the first 
experiences of seeing the risen Jesus. In Paul's account 
in the first epistle to the Corinthians he named an appear- 
ance to Peter alone. This may be the appearance which 
is recorded in the last chapter of the Gospel according to 
John as occurring in Galilee. The result of that appear- 
ance to Peter was that he became aware that Jesus was 
alive and had forgiven him for his denial of Him. 

Paul also mentions an appearance to "above five hun- 
dred brethren at once," which is not mentioned else- 
where, unless the Pentecostal experience of the multi- 
tude of disciples, related in the Book of Acts, be the one 
referred to. The narratives in Matthew, Luke and John, 
are evidently built upon knowledge of the account by 
Mark, but with different inferences. 

We gather from these accounts that the conviction 



212 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

arose early among the friends of Jesus, that there had been 
spiritual experiences among the Twelve upon their return 
to Galilee, which persuaded them that Jesus was still 
living. These experiences were shared by Paul and 
Stephen, and were early reflected in the company of dis- 
ciples who soon made their headquarters at Jerusalem. 

While it is impossible for us to be certain as to the de- 
tails of these experiences, since the written accounts ap- 
peared so many years after the death of Jesus, all Chris- 
tians are united in certain great assurances. These 
assurances are all stated in those wonderful words found 
in the last chapters of the Gospel according to John. 

The first of these assurances was that the power of 
Jesus was greater after than before His death. John 
reports Jesus as having said, "He that believeth on me, 
the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works 
than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father." 

The second assurance was that the disciples could, as 
Jesus had prophesied, understand Him better now than 
before His death. Jesus had said, "The Comforter, 
even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my 
name, he shall teach you all things and bring to your 
remembrance the things that I said unto you." "He 
will guide you into all truth; he shall glorify me: for he 
shall take of mine and shall declare it unto you." 

A third assurance was that the death of Jesus had 
turned out to be of real benefit to the church. John re- 
ports Jesus as having said, "Ye now have sorrow, but I 
will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice, and your 
joy no man taketh away from you." 

We have, therefore, as the marvel of history, these three 
facts, — that after Jesus' apparently complete downfall, His 
friends received from Him greater power, deeper knowl- 
edge and stronger joy than even during His lifetime. In 
this power, knowledge and joy they completed their 
organization; went forth to tell the story of His life and 
immortality, and began to establish His spiritual King- 
dom among the races of men. 




Properly of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

AMONG THE LOWLY. 
From a painting by L'Hermitte. 



THE LIVING CHRIST 213 

These are the great spiritual facts which we call the 
resurrection, facts which Christians verify in their own 
fellowship with Christ to-day. In some of the details of 
the later Gospel accounts we recognize the answers 
which the early church was endeavoring to give to un- 
believers in the resurrection who lived from thirty to 
fifty years after the crucifixion of Jesus. Those answers 
and explanations are only incidental. The spiritual 
power which Jesus has exercised since Calvary is that 
which constitutes the Christ who abides. 

While we may leave to scholars the problems which 
surround a detailed study of the New Testament accounts 
of the resurrection, we must ourselves feel indebted to 
that heroic church, out of whose mind came the Gospels, 
for that spectacle of true Christlikeness, which is the only 
convincing proof for all time of the central belief of all 
Christians. These Christian men and women proved by 
their faith and lives that the connecting bond between 
Jesus and us is not broken. He lived in them: in Paul, 
in Peter and in the multitude of unnamed Christian dis- 
ciples. The essential thing is not how nor when He 
appeared. Jesus so lived that He made His friends ab- 
solutely sure of His immortality and theirs. A living 
Jesus, not in Sheol nor in Galilee, but with the Father 
and with us, is the dynamic of Christians. He is such 
to-day. This is the Christ who abides. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 
THE RADIANCE OF THE MASTER 

The Christian church is the first evidence for the living 
and abiding Christ. The church poured itself like a 
pure mountain-stream into the foul river of the Augustan 
age and purified the waters wherever it flowed. It sanc- 
tified the relations of the home, it ennobled marriage and 
the position of woman, it showed new possibilities in 
human friendship, and its little circles of Christian fellow- 
ship became such unselfish and mutually helpful com- 
munities as the world had not known. While the early 
Christians believed that the end of the world was near, 
and so did not attempt to change society, nevertheless 
their social influence was revolutionary. Slavery and the 
abuses due to injustice grew less, there was an increased 
consideration and care for children, the sick, the poor 
and the aged, institutions of philanthropy began to rise 
and the democracy in the church was soon reflected in 
the state. In all the life of the early church these marks 
of progress owed their existence to personal devotion to 
Jesus. His rewarding face met the eyes of the dying 
Christian martyr, His character was the exemplar in 
personal relations and to some extent His ideals for the 
Kingdom on earth began to be definitely sought as the 
goal for Christian endeavor. 

The influence of Jesus was soon felt in literature. In 
reading the Gospels, we are impressed with the sincerity 
and the earnestness of the authors. Nothing but a 
passion for Jesus could have produced writings that are 
so limpid, so convincing, so ennobling. It has been often 
remarked that it would take a Jesus to invent such a 
Jesus as they portray. Surely it must have been men 

214 



JESUS AND HUMAN THOUGHT 215 

who were very near to Jesus who could give portrayals 
so impersonal and modest and yet so clear and compelling 
as these. The imaginative in literature began at an early 
period to glorify Jesus. One form of imaginative litera- 
ture is that of song. In addition to the sacred songs which 
were composed around the birth of Jesus, the church from 
the first century began to utter hymns and rhythmic 
prayers in which the praise of Jesus was foremost. Those 
songs and prayers, amid the divisions of the sects, remain 
the best bond of spiritual unity, since "Christendom is 
still united in the chambers where good men pray." 

Time fails to tell how the influence of Jesus actually 
purified and enlarged the moral possibilities of the Greek 
language, in which His Gospels and the earliest statements 
of Christian faith were written. Nor may we pause to 
dwell on the influence of Jesus in myth, drama, poetry, 
lyric and epic, fiction and general literature. So deeply 
is His life and teaching interwoven with all writing that 
it may be said that no man is truly educated who does 
not have, as a part of his intellectual furnishing, at 
least some elementary knowledge of what Jesus did and 
said. , 

Jesus has had a great influence upon thought. One of 
the first endeavors of men was to explain Jesus. The 
synoptic Gospels are evidence of somewhat unformed 
theories about Him, but in the Fourth Gospel a writer 
has applied a current philosophy to Him. Paul, in his 
epistles, had evidently worked out a mingling of Greek 
with his own Jewish thought. Many creeds have been 
framed since then, but in all of them the effort has been 
made to make Jesus central. The creeds have often 
been shackles to man's mind, but the influence of Jesus 
has been to free men's thinking. He who encouraged 
men to know the truth, because it would make them free, 
engaged in such a candid scrutiny of the only books and 
facts and ideas at His command as to encourage every 
thinker in the various realms of science ever since. A 
youth to-day may study with complete candor whatever 



216 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

God has made, knowing that Jesus is with him in his 
search to discover all that is to be known. 

Jesus was never more alive in the thought of the world 
than now. Each age has to write its own life of Jesus, 
as His manifold character comes up for fresh study, and 
each generation tries to interpret it according to its own 
genius. 

Jesus influenced the greatest human arts. There is 
scarcely any painting up to the Renaissance that does not 
represent either Jesus or His mother. The church, which 
took possession of old Greek and Roman basilicas and 
temples, finally created in Gothic cathedrals a form of 
art made solely for the purposes of Christian worship. 
Not only the sweetest hymns but the grandest oratorios 
have been composed in the adoration of Jesus. 

Endeavors to portray the face and figure of Jesus have 
never been satisfying, since the character that shone 
behind them was transcendent. But with the awakening 
of the human spirit at the end of the Middle Ages there 
came among men a freshened conception of Jesus' faith 
in the essential beauty of life and of humanity. Then 
the artists, who had been nurtured in the church, began to 
look upon human faces and forms as models for their 
pictured angels, and soon after frankly acknowledged 
that men and nature were worth painting in themselves 
regardless of their possible uses in church decoration. 
So the world came to have the human madonnas of 
Raphael and Fra Angelico, the smiling children and 
cherubs of the Delia Robbias, the wonderful drawings and 
sculptures of the human figure of Angelo, the incisive 
character sketches of Durer and Holbein, the mysterious 
lights and shades of Rembrandt, the transcriptions to 
canvas of the wonder and charm of nature of Turner and 
Corot and Constable, and the painted parables of Holman 
Hunt and Watts. These were all Christian artists, and 
their inspiration may be traced directly from Jesus* 
attitude toward men and life. 

Somewhat the same things may be said of the con- 



JESUS IN THE LIVES OF MEN 217 

scientious pains of the handicraftsmen, the endeavors 
to add to the comfort and beauty of human homes, of 
the architects and decorators, the rise of home music 
and balladry, and all humble arts and crafts that have 
brought the Kingdom of God into the beautiful ordering 
of personal and domestic life. 

There have been ages when the prostitution of art 
caused a strong puritan influence to rise in protest, which 
confused beauty with its misuse and abolished both 
together. A saner Christianity regards such protests as 
having been necessary and noble, but believes that He who 
loved the flowers and the birds and song and the faces 
of men desires that these shall always minister to good- 
ness. Perhaps Jesus' distinguishing mental trait was that 
He succeeded in finding pleasure in more things than 
did any one else. He saw the inner beauty in neglected 
objects and He drew a serene strength from unlovely 
places and persons, and He set the world the example 
of a life which honored God in the fine art of beautiful 
living. 

Jesus' most wonderful influence has been in the personal 
lives of men. Doubtless He is the human ideal realized. 
Men can conceive no higher type of purpose and conduct 
than to be like Him. He is one of the few sons of earth 
for whom men have been willing to die, and men have 
died for Jesus for reasons more unselfish and noble than 
for any other hero. 

Let us not deny that crimes and wrongs have been done 
in the name of Jesus, that His church has at times so 
misrepresented Him by its motives and conduct as to 
bring shame upon Him. It remains true that, in every 
age, there has been a type of character so distinguished 
and so unique that it has been rightly recognized as 
Christian. That type of character has often been seen 
in men of so great ability or sanctity that it has been 
remarked that Jesus may be measured by the greatness 
of the men who have owned Him as Master. To make a 
list of such men would be to recapitulate most of the 



218 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

world's history since His day. But we may at least 
mention these: Paul, Augustine, Chrysostom, Francis 
of Assisi, Arnold of Brescia, Savonarola, Wyclif, Luther, 
Calvin, Knox, Livingstone, Gladstone, Shaftesbury, How- 
ard, Havelock, Gordon, Joan of Arc, Penn, Washington, 
Lincoln, Drummond and Brooks. These men, in their 
various places and according to their types of genius, 
acknowledged Jesus as their Master and endeavored 
to make the work of their lives a part of the upbuilding 
of His Kingdom. 

Still more impressive has been the influence of Jesus 
among average men. Take the impression made by a 
foreign missionary. We may illustrate by India. " In- 
dia," says Dr. J. D. Jones of that country which gives 
more thought to religion than any other, " India has 
plenty of religious thought, but has never had a religious 
idea incarnated in any life." The truth of this may be 
seen in the fact that the most popular gods in India are, 
one the god of lust, a second the god of deviltry, and the 
third the god of cruelty. Into this country comes a 
missionary. He has a good education, a conservative the- 
ology and a genuine consecration to Jesus. The shrewd 
and acute Hindus can controvert all his arguments, 
they see no value in his theology, but they cannot resist 
the evidence of his life. Think what a pure, refined and 
noble Bible reader means when she appears in a dirty 
and degraded Indian village. Imagine the impression 
made by a skilled Christian physician who lays his life 
alongside the diseased, the plague-smitten, the suffer- 
ing people of an Indian province. Through such men 
and women's lives and deeds the gospel is sure to tri- 
umph, and such expressions of Jesus must transform the 
world. 

For we need not look in foreign lands for testimonies as 
to the power of Jesus in the individual life. Every age 
collects its witness from men and women who, depraved 
in life, despondent of heart and impotent in will, have 
found a vital connection with God through Jesus, and 




Copyright by the Curtis Publishing Co. 

THE THREE WISE MEN. 
From a painting by W. L. Taylor. 



JESUS AND THE KINGDOM 219 

have been lifted by Him "out of the miry clay, their 
feet set upon a rock, and a new song put in their mouths, 
even praise to our God." An age that accepts no other 
miracle stops its mouth when it beholds what the Father 
of Jesus does with a yielded life. He who made His 
great Son the Messenger and Channel of His word to 
men has also made sons to Himself out of the scum and 
waste of humanity. 

Since Christian men have seen that the Kingdom is 
to come by a campaign and not by a catastrophe, the in- 
fluence of Jesus has manifested itself in marvellous ways 
in establishing that Kingdom on earth. The motive 
and program of the foreign missionary crusade is the 
largest philanthropic plan that has ever entered the 
mind of man, and the church has at length mapped out 
the whole world as the field of Christian enterprise. 
At home Christians are beginning to study as never before 
how to seize the whole of life for the Kingdom and build 
its glory in every phase of it. Jesus was never so alive 
as to-day, when men are endeavoring to realize the new 
Jerusalem on earth. 

The influence of Jesus either created or gave a vivify- 
ing impetus to the education of the people, to hospitals 
and medicine, to charity and philanthropy, and above all 
to the devotion of men in personal service to suffering and 
needy humanity. It is inspiring men not only to relieve 
distress but to study and remove its causes. It is leading 
Christian men to study politics, political economy, the 
relations of capital and labor, finance, land tenures and 
the conditions under which men labor, the protection of 
women and children, and has stimulated countless move- 
ments to apply the remedies in practical ways. There 
is still in the world an almost pathetic expectation that 
Jesus has a new word for our own time. Workingmen 
have been known to curse the Christian church for its 
apathy to their needs and in the same breath cheer the 
name of the Carpenter of Nazareth. Especially do men, 
rich and poor, still look to the principles of Jesus to save 



220 THE LIFE OF JESUS 

the class of humanity out of which He himself sprung, 
those who work with their hands. 

Surely no one can read the life of Jesus without asking 
the question which Jesus Himself once asked of His dis- 
ciples, "Who do you say that I am?" We have seen 
something of what was meant when He was called "the 
Son of man," the human brother who was a prophet of 
God. We have seen how Jesus enlarged and spiritualized 
the old Jewish idea of a "Messiah" by becoming the 
founder of a world-wide Kingdom of devotion to God 
and to men. We cannot perhaps fully understand or 
measure that other title, "the Son of God," by which 
He was called by others more often than He called Him- 
self. Does it not at least mean to us that the God of 
many providences gave to the world this supreme Provi- 
dence? So mighty and enriching a stream surely came 
from some high and heavenly source. Does it not mean 
at least that the Father, to whom Jesus consecrated Him- 
self, poured the fulness of spiritual love and wisdom and 
power upon Him? Do we not feel that Jesus speaks 
to us from a character which we recognize as the char- 
acter of God and with the authority of an accepted and 
commissioned Son ? 

After all, the chief influence of Jesus has been and is 
in commanding and challenging personal loyalty. As 
the will is higher than the feelings and the intellect, so 
Jesus' appeal to the will is greater than His appeal to the 
mind and the heart. Great Christians have always been 
men who have devoted their choices to the ends for 
which Jesus cared. It has been startling in considering 
the lives of the noblest of His followers, to note how they 
so identified their life work with the purpose of Jesus 
that they seemed to be doing just what He would have 
done in their place. It remains true still that to be a 
Christian is chiefly, after understanding the ideals of 
Jesus, to stand on His side, to devote one's self loyally 
to His work and to try to make His will the law of one's 
own life and of the life of the world. 



THE CHALLENGE OF JESUS 221 

The purpose of this story of the life of Jesus has been 
to help you to understand those ideals, so that you shall 
take His side as long as you live. 

Can one know who Jesus was and what He stands for 
and not be willing to follow Him ? 






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